With the 2024 NFL regular season already more than halfway over and the playoffs on the horizon, the best teams in the league are currently solidifying themselves in the Super Bowl race. At this point in the season, after week 11, there are many teams that are clear contenders for the playoffs, and on the other hand, to say the least, a lot of teams are already looking forward to next season.
Nearly every division in the entire NFL has one or two teams that can safely say are not seeing January. Whether it’s the Saints, who haven’t won a game since September, the Panthers with an embarrassing -163 point differential, or the Jets, who can’t seem to get anything right, no matter how many changes to the team. There is one division in the league, however, that is performing better than all the other seven, so good in fact, that it had all four of its teams in the top four point differentials at week six. That division, representing the Midwestern United States, is the NFC North.
Going into the season, this division was already expected to be among the best in the league, but its record-breaking start to the season shocked the NFL and struck fear into the hearts of the other divisions. Up until week 10, the NFC North was the only division in the league to have all four teams at .500 or above, and is currently the only division to have three teams with six or more wins. In week six, all four teams had at least four wins, making it the first time since the AFL/NFL merger in 1970 since an entire division had four or more wins per team in the sixth week. At this point in the season, three teams, the Lions, Vikings, and Packers, are all in the top seven teams predicted to make the playoffs, again, the most teams from a single division. The season is barely halfway over, but let’s take a look at the state of the NFC North coming out of the 11th week.
In the last place spot in the division, is the Chicago Bears. There was no team in the NFC that had more anticipation than the Chicago Bears. After an under .500 season of 7-10 in 2023, which was still a major improvement from their 2022 season of 3-14, Chicago decided to trade away starting quarterback Justin Fields in favor of the number one draft pick in Caleb Williams. The Heisman-winning quarterback from USC seemed to be the most hyped-up rookie QB in years, with the majority of Bears fans excited and hopeful for him to join the team. The Bears started off their season with a win at home against the Titans, a deserved win, yet Williams underperformed, with the win falling into the hands of Chicago’s defense more than anything. The next two weeks saw losses against the Texans and Colts, though both games were lost by less than a touchdown. The team then saw a streak of wins against the Rams, Panthers, and Jaguars, respectively, with the latter being a win overseas in London. Williams only continued to play better and better with each game. The Bears came home for a bye week, and in week 8 went to Washington, DC, to face the Commanders, against another rookie QB Jayden Daniels. Chicago was down most of the game but came up on top with less than a minute in the game. It seemed as if the Bears had the win as the game came down to the final seconds, but the feeling of happiness was cut short when Jayden Daniels threw a 52-yard Hail Mary pass as the game clock ran to zero, ending the game with a Commanders’ victory. This once-in-a-decade play changed something in the Bears, as heading into week 12, they have not managed to come back with a win since. Losing pretty badly against the Cardinals, an embarrassing loss to the 2-7 Patriots, and a heartbreaking blocked field goal in the last seconds of the game against the Packers, the Bears now sit at 4-6 at the bottom of the NFC North. However, they look a lot better than the rest of the bottom teams in the NFL, but Chicago is set to finish the season with by far the toughest schedule in the NFL, mostly having to do with their five divisional games left to play.
In third place sits the Green Bay Packers, a team that has been through an eventful season so far. In the off season, starting quarterback Jordan Love signed a contract extension for over $200 million in just four years, the biggest NFL contract at the time, which was shortly overpassed by Dak Prescott. It is fair to say that Love’s expectations were incredibly high going into the season, but Packers fans’ hearts stopped in the end of the first game of the season as Love went down with a knee injury and limped off the field. The Packers ended up losing the first game of the season to the Eagles in the first NFL game played in Brazil, making them the only NFC North team to not win in the first week. Love was out on injury for the next two games, with many Packers fans afraid that the season was already over. To their surprise however, backup QB Malik Willis, who was traded from Tennessee just a week before the beginning of the season, stepped up and managed to secure the Packers two wins in a row against The Colts and Willis’ former team The Titans. Although these were far from the best teams that they beat, it was still an impressive feat from a backup quarterback. Love returned the following week to play the Vikings, where the Packers lost, but only by a field goal. The Packers went on to win four in a row, including two games that came down to last second field goals against the Texans and Jaguars, respectively. As the season went on, Jordan Love began to get into a habit of throwing interceptions, making some truly embarrassing decisions on the field. Some claim that it has to do with his knee injury that at the time, was not completely healed, though as he now leads the NFL in interceptions, it may not be fair to blame it entirely. The Packers suffered another pretty embarrassing loss to the Lions, but managed to keep the point differential a lot better than it could have been. The Packers had a bye in week 10 and came back to face division rivals The Bears. The game was neck and neck the entire time, with it looking as if the ten-game winning streak against The Bears was about to come to an end as Chicago lined up for a field goal in the last few seconds. In a miraculous act, the kick was tipped off the fingers of defensive lineman, Karl Brooks, winning Green Bay the game by just a single point and extending the winning streak. The Packers now sit at 7-3, yet they are only third in the division.
The Minnesota Vikings have had the most surprising season so far in this division. Their starting quarterback, rookie JJ McCarthy, who won the NCAA Championship last year, suffered a torn meniscus in the preseason, leading Sam Darnold to take charge as the starter. Darnold shattered everyone’s expectations, leading the Vikings to be 5-0 at the end of the fifth week and sitting at the top of the NFC North for some time. This undefeated streak ended in week seven while coming off a bye against the Lions in a very close game. The Vikings lost once again the next week to the much inferior Rams, knocking them down to second place in the division where they still stand. They bounced back, however, and started up a new winning streak that has continued into the end of week 11, where they still stand at 8-2. In contrast to their 2023 record of 7-7, they are already on track to the playoffs and are in contention with the Lions to lead the NFC North. Darnold, a player notorious for hopping between multiple teams for a season or two, has been integral in the team’s success this season. Darnold only signed on for one season and was expected to compete with McCarthy, but after his performances this season, it is not clear who the starting QB will be next season, especially if the Vikings can have motion in the playoffs. In tandem with one of best receivers in the league in Justin Jefferson, this team has a bright future ahead of them and has cemented themselves as one of the best teams in the NFC. The undisputed best team in the NFC however, happens to be in the same division as them.
If someone went into a coma just five years ago and woke up today, the hardest thing for them to believe would probably be that the Detroit Lions are easily the best team in the NFL. An organization that has historically been terrible, never seeing the Super Bowl once, and having a historic 0-16 record in 2008, Lions fans can finally feel good about their team for the first time in decades. Just three seasons ago, the Lions finished at 3-13-1, and the very next season had an over .500 record of 9-8, by the next season they lost in the NFC Championship at 12-5, and at this point in the year, are expected to finish with an even better record. The Lions playing is comparable to none in the league, with quarterback Jared Goff leading the league in completed pass percentage, and the team overall having a reputation for dominating teams and easily leading the league in point differential with an overall differential of 159 at the end of week 11. The Lions were expected to be one of the best in the league heading into the 2024 season, and to say they met this expectation would be an understatement. After a shocking loss to the Buccaneers in week two, they bounced back with a win in week three and have not lost since. Even after a season low for Jared Goff against the Texans in week 10, where he threw five interceptions in a single game, Detroit was still able to come out with the win by the skin of their teeth. In week 11, they faced one of the worst teams in the NFL, the Jaguars, and absolutely demolished them in a 52-6 win, with them scoring 7 touchdowns in 7 drives. With a game against The Colts in week 12, it seems that this winning streak will not be ending. The question on many people’s minds, is what exactly has happened here? How have the Detroit Lions, one of the oldest teams in the NFL, yet have never seen the Super Bowl and before 2023 had not won their division in 30 years, become the best team in the league? This team’s success may lie in the hands of one man, head coach Dan Campbell. Campbell took over as play caller in week 10 of the 2021 season and has not looked back, scheming up plays that have never been seen before on the field. Campbell was on the infamous 0-16 Lions team back in 2008 and is on a current war path toward the Super Bowl to avenge that season.
All jokes aside, any great team isn’t successful solely off the backs of one man, it is a team after all, and the Lions are excelling in all categories. There are very few fanbases in the NFL that have historically had it worse than the Lions, with the past three decades being disappointment after disappointment, this season has been the reward of a lifetime for Detroit fans.
“It’s a little surreal to have Sundays in the fall actually mean something, or draw my interest,” said Chad Janetzke, a high school teacher and lifelong Lions fan. “Credit to the culture that our GM and head coach have created, but even more, the Xs and Os have been fun to watch in all phases of the game…I’m cautiously optimistic about their chances to go far this year, but sixty years of mediocrity and heartbreak is a lot of PTSD to overcome.”
The Lions are the favorites to make it to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl this season, and the way things are looking, we may see Detroit play in February for the first time in modern NFL history.
Out of all the divisions in the NFL, there are very few that can claim to have zero bad teams. Divisions like the AFC North and NFC East come to mind, but no division has put up records across all four teams like the NFC North. The Midwest truly is the best region of the United States.
