defend their title in 2026<\/a>?<\/p>\nNFL.com’s Kevin Patra looked at just that, pointing out that only one team \u2014 the Eagles \u2014 repeated a division crown from 2024 to 2025. He said the 2026 campaign “could offer the same sort of turnover.” Patra wrote:<\/p>\n
Frankly, it might be easier to argue why all eight of the division winners will fall from their peak than suggest continuity reigns. Each defender is vulnerable. Plenty of contenders have improved this offseason to make their case for swiping their division.<\/p>\n
As we look at which division winners might be exposed, I’d like to be clear that this is not a prediction column. I’m not officially stating that the higher-ranked teams are destined to tumble. But this exercise is aimed at analyzing how terms might have changed in the offseason.<\/p>\n
Patra started with the Steelers and Panthers, then looked at Chicago’s chances at topping the NFC North again this season.<\/p>\n
Chicago used a host of comeback victories to flip from worst to first in the NFC North last season. Staying on top will prove a tougher challenge in a tightly packed division. Caleb Williams continues to ascend, and [Head Coach] Ben Johnson’s offense figures to take another step forward with the development of Rome Odunze, Luther Burden III and Colston Loveland. There is a question at left tackle, and Chicago has yet to fill the holes on the defensive line. The Bears toed the line last year, winning seven one-score games. With a more difficult route, a regression to the mean in those close tilts could cost them a chance to repeat. The Lions are improved on paper from a year ago after filling the holes on the offensive line, but they still have questions on defense. When Micah Parsons returns from injury, the Packers will be a force to be reckoned with. And if the Vikings can figure out their QB room \u2014 possibly getting a Sam Darnold-like boost from Kyler Murray \u2014 they can’t be counted out. You could legitimately make an argument that any of the four teams can win the division without sounding completely nutty.<\/p>\n
Behind the Bears, Patra listed the Broncos, Seahawks, Patriots, Eagles and Jaguars. He said he liked what Head Coach Liam Coen did with Jacksonville last season and he expects “Coen’s attack to take another step forward,” poising the AFC South team to return to glory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NFL.com analyzes ‘most\/least vulnerable’ division champs Looking across the league, which division champs are best positioned to defend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,20716,30542,30541,30543],"class_list":["post-294244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-dallas-turner","tag-lunch-break","tag-news-index","tag-news-lunch-break"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}