The NFC North just might be the best division in football.

The AFC North has three legit teams and one terrible franchise. The AFC West has three competitors and a Raiders squad with potential.

Still think the NFC North has it all, with depth and talent and elite coaching at every stop. That makes Ben Johnson’s first season as Bears head coach a difficult one, facing three division rivals who made the playoffs last season.

Significant upgrades were made to each team, most notably with a blockbuster trade that sent three-time All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers for two first-round picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark.

That changes the dynamic of the division somewhat, but it doesn’t make Green Bay favorites to run away with the NFC North. Yep, the division is that good.

It’s a situation where each team could finish above or around .500 with no team getting through the division unscathed. Let’s take a look at the NFC North power rankings heading into the 2025 NFL season:

Detroit Lions

The trendy move would be to put the Packers on top after Parsons moved to Green Bay. Not with the Lions in town. They lost esteemed coordinators in Johnson and Aaron Glenn to head-coaching jobs, but the Lions are loaded with talent and stacked on the offensive and defensive lines.

While the Packers added Parsons, Detroit gets a similar upgrade with a return from injury. Aidan Hutchinson played just five games last season – he had 7.5 sacks in that span – before missing time with a broken leg. He’s back and in fine form, giving Detroit the elite edge rusher it survived without most of last season.

The Lions aren’t abandoning Johnson’s system, which worked so well in recent seasons, and quarterback Jared Goff knows how to operate it. And head coach Dan Campbell might be the ultimate culture builder and should be able to keep Detroit’s good thing going during a period of sustained success.

Green Bay Packers

Look, the Parsons trade doesn’t hurt the Packers. It helps them a great deal, adding an explosive element to a stout pass rush that also includes Rashan Gary and Lukas Van Ness. While I said on the previous Chicago Football Show that I don’t have great faith in quarterback Jordan Love, and I don’t think the skill players outside Josh Jacobs – he’s so, so good – scare you.

All that said, the Packers defense is really good and Love is a good passer despite not being a great one. They’ll be consistently competitive and win a bunch of games behind an excellent head coach in Mike LaFleur and defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley.

Chicago Bears

The Bears have such a tough schedule. And the offense had plenty of starts and stops during training camp, but the Johnson effect will be profound. The Bears have so many skill players capable of explosive plays, and Johnson will make good use of them. The Bears defense will be the team’s bedrock in the early going, to quality effect, if Montez Sweat can be the impact player worthy of his salary slot.

Caleb Williams has all the talent required of an elite NFL quarterback. If he puts it together, the Bears will be competitive as heck.

Minnesota Vikings

The coaching is next level with Kevin O’Connell and Brian Flores calling plays on offense and defense, respectively. They have an elite receiver in Justin Jefferson, an upgraded offensive line and a defensive front with two double-digit-sacks edge rushers and Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave on the inside.

With all those nice things said, why are the Vikings ranked in the No. 4 slot? A new and inexperienced quarterback. J.J. McCarthy may end up a quality signal caller as soon as this year. He was a winner in college and could be here again. But he adds an air of uncertainty, before a single game that counts has been played, to what the Vikings will do this year. If he struggles, as quarterbacks without pelts on the wall tend to do, the Vikings will struggle. If he’s really good, the Vikings will compete and could well win this division. That’s how tight this four-team grouping is heading into the 2025 season.