The fans of the Chicago Bears are hopeful that this franchise is finally on the right track. With Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams as the team’s head coach/quarterback combo, many Bears fans are thinking, “If this doesn’t work, it’s never going to work.” However, I also believe that the confidence is high that this will work.
But when we think about the Bears’ hopes for the future, you also have to look at the division. The NFC North is arguably the toughest division in the NFL. The Bears fan base is confident, but let’s be honest, the rest of the division’s fan bases are also confident about their teams’ futures.
Question of the Day: What team from the NFC North will be the next to win the Super Bowl?
This question is tough, so let’s break down the contenders.
My answer. Let’s start with the Detroit Lions. I think their window is starting to close. I think Lions fans will say I’m a biased homer who hates the Lions, but I just don’t know if this team can recover from the losses it sustained on its coaching staff.
Not only that, but I don’t think Jared Goff is good enough to win a Super Bowl. Goff turns 31 this year, just lost an elite play caller, and I think Goff’s best days are behind him. That doesn’t mean I expect him to be bad at this point, but just not at the level he’s been.
While the Lions roster is loaded, I think when some of these contracts are going to come due, they are going to start getting into salary cap issues, and I think the roster starts to bleed some talent as well.
The Lions’ year to win it all was 2024. The window is still open this year, but the coaching staff losses will cause they to regress. I think the Lions will need to reload this coaching staff and this roster in a few years, and after not taking advantage of their tremendous 2024, the Lions aren’t going to be a Super Bowl team.
I don’t get the Green Bay Packers. I think Matt LaFleur is one of the top coaches in the NFL. The Packers roster is good, I just don’t think it’s spectacular. I don’t buy Jordan Love as an elite quarterback. He’s a very good quarterback, but I don’t think he’s at a level that can win a Super Bowl.
The Packers have a bunch of solid receiving weapons, but they don’t have top-end talent. It’s a team of several good players that are going to win more games than they lose, but without the top-end talent, I just don’t know if this roster is at a Super Bowl level.
To me, the Bears and Vikings are the most interesting teams. The Bears are the biggest wild card. How good will Caleb Williams be? How good will Ben Johnson be? The Bears have several unknowns. While we, as Bears fans, think things are going to come together and the Bears are going to be competing for championships, we don’t know it quite yet.
That leaves the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings, like the Lions, have never won a Super Bowl, but I think the argument could be made that the Vikings are in the best position to win a Super Bowl from this division. They have a really strong roster. They have two great coaches, with Kevin O’Connell running the offense and Brian Flores running the defense, and they also have top-end talent, such as Justin Jefferson.
The wild card here is JJ McCarthy. I look at O’Connell and what he did with Sam Darnold, and I have a hard time imagining that he can’t figure out how to make it work with McCarthy.
I was high on McCarthy in the predraft process. I had him as my QB3 behind Williams and Drake Maye. If you liked McCarthy coming into the draft last year, there’s no reason not to be high on him with a solid offensive line, Justin Jefferson, and Kevin O’Connell.
McCarthy isn’t going to be a Super Bowl-level quarterback this season, and I don’t think his ceiling is as high as the likes of Caleb Williams. But I absolutely think he can be as good or better than Goff or Love.
While the Bears roster has some question marks and we don’t know what Williams and Johnson will eventually be, we already know about the Vikings roster, and we know about O’Connell.
While I’m hopeful the Chicago Bears will be the next team to win the Super Bowl out of the NFC North, I think if you’re objective and look at the full picture of every team, the Vikings are the team best set up to win a championship out of the division in the next few years.