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NFC North Stockwatch: Chicago’s rise highlights why the division is still the league’s gauntlet
The Apex Times

THE APEX TIMES

Sports/The Apex Times/Jun 11, 2:27 PM EDT

NFC North Stockwatch: Chicago’s rise highlights why the division is still the league’s gauntlet

With the NFC North again shaping up as one of the NFL’s toughest slates, a look at offseason momentum underscores how quickly the Bears turned the corner and why every opponent should expect resistance from top to bottom.

By The Apex Times Newsroom3 min readAI-assisted Apex article

The NFC North has a reputation for consistency at the high end, but a new wrinkle makes it harder to dismiss the division as merely competitive. In 2025, all four teams in the NFC North finished with winning records, a first in NFL history for the division. That matters because it changes the baseline. Instead of one or two teams “separating,” the entire conference picture looks tighter, and the margin for error shrinks across the board.

Against that backdrop, Chicago’s trajectory stands out. Yahoo Sports’ Aaron Leming included the Bears among the teams he believes did the most to improve their “stock” heading into the regular season, framing Chicago as a club that already found a way to swing its fortunes. The claim is that the Bears made a dramatic leap, going from worst-to-first over the course of a season, a storyline that helped reset expectations around the franchise.

The core issue for the Bears is simple, but it is also unforgiving. If the NFC North can produce four winning teams in the same year, then improvement has to be more than a seasonal bump. It has to be sustainable, especially against opponents that can combine defensive toughness with enough offensive stability to play winning football late. The Bears can no longer treat any division matchup as a given, even when the rest of the league might view Chicago as still catching up.

What Leming’s framing suggests is that Chicago’s offseason work, at least in the way it is evaluated by media observers, is intended to reinforce the team’s upward momentum rather than just capitalize on it. In a division where every club profiles as capable, the teams that keep moving forward are the ones that convert offseason progress into routine execution. For Chicago, that is the difference between a one-year surprise and a lasting place in the playoff picture.

The wider context is that the NFC North continues to look “daunting” on principle. The division has repeatedly delivered games where competitive gaps disappear quickly, meaning teams can win close contests one year and be pushed back the next. When four teams are capable of posting winning records, the standings can tighten rapidly, and a late-season slump becomes more consequential than it would be in a weaker division.

For fans, the practical question is what comes next. The 2025 baseline sets the bar. If the Bears want the best version of their stockwatch story to become an identity, they will need to maintain their improved level against the most familiar, most prepared opponents on their schedule. And for the rest of the division, Chicago’s rise is a reminder that the North is not static, even when it feels like it always has the same problems to solve.

Why It Matters

  • A division where all four teams post winning records forces every NFC North opponent to treat each matchup as a likely swing game, changing how teams manage risk and roster usage.
  • Chicago’s worst-to-first framing elevates the expectations threshold for the Bears, meaning maintaining progress will be more difficult than making a single jump.
  • The North’s depth increases the chance of multiple playoff-contending teams, but also increases the likelihood that one or two losses can reshuffle the standings quickly.

Sources

Key Facts

  • In 2025, the NFC North became the first NFL division in league history to have all four teams finish with winning records.
  • Yahoo Sports analyst Aaron Leming listed the Chicago Bears among the teams trending up heading into the regular season.
  • Leming’s framing highlights the Bears’ turnaround, described as going from worst-to-first over the course of a season.
  • The NFC North is being characterized as especially difficult again, with competitiveness lasting from start to finish.
  • The story centers on offseason improvement “stock” rather than game-by-game details.