The Chicago Bears have done it. For the first time since 2018—and only the sixth time this century—the Bears are NFC North champions, clinching the division in dramatic fashion on December 27, 2025, thanks to the Green Bay Packers’ 41-24 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. It’s a momentous turnaround for a franchise that just last season finished at the bottom of the division, and now, under rookie head coach Ben Johnson and second-year quarterback Caleb Williams, they’ve stormed to an 11-4 record and a guaranteed home playoff game at Soldier Field.
Let’s rewind for a moment. The Bears’ journey to the top has been anything but straightforward. After a 5-12 campaign in 2024, few outside Halas Hall could have predicted such a meteoric rise. Yet, here they are, a team that began the season 0-2—suffering a blown lead to the Minnesota Vikings in the opener and a lopsided defeat to the Detroit Lions—now sitting atop the NFC North. The turnaround has been fueled by resilience and a knack for late-game heroics: three walk-off victories and six wins when trailing in the fourth quarter have turned doubters into believers across the league.
General manager Ryan Poles, who took over football operations in January 2022, made his ambitions clear from day one: "take the North and never give it back." After three consecutive last-place finishes and a roster overhaul that saw the team go 3-14 in 2022 and 7-10 in 2023, his vision has finally become reality. The Bears’ 2025 resurgence is a testament to patience, bold leadership, and a willingness to trust the process.
Coach Ben Johnson, now a strong candidate for NFL Coach of the Year, brought an infectious intensity and clear goals to the locker room. “There’s never been an 11-win team to not make it, and so we felt pretty good about that being the number going into the season. That was step one,” Johnson said Monday. “Step two is we want to win this division. We want to have at least one home playoff game, and then step three would be clinch a number one seed.”
Step one and two are now complete. The Bears clinched a playoff berth last week, after their instant-classic win over the Packers and a Detroit Lions loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. And with Baltimore’s victory at Lambeau Field, Chicago locked up the NFC North, guaranteeing at least the No. 3 seed in the playoffs. But Johnson and his squad aren’t content to rest on their laurels. The No. 1 seed in the NFC is still within reach: if the Bears can defeat the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday night and the Detroit Lions in Week 18, and if the Seattle Seahawks drop one of their final two games, Chicago will secure home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs.
Johnson isn’t looking too far ahead, though. When asked about the possibility of resting starters in Week 18, he was quick to refocus: “I’m not even thinking about anything beyond this game right now,” he said Friday. “I’d be doing our guys a disservice. We have a really tough opponent at hand this week. Going out to Santa Clara, across the country, and they’re hot right now. That’s all I really care about is finding a way to go 1-0 this week.”
This year’s Bears have become the NFL’s quintessential “How do they keep winning like this?” team. Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams has emerged as one of the league’s best in the fourth quarter, orchestrating comeback after comeback. On the other side of the ball, Dennis Allen’s defense leads the NFL in takeaways, while a revamped offensive line has powered Chicago to the league’s No. 2 rushing attack. The Bears’ ability to win close games and capitalize on turnovers has set them apart in a fiercely competitive NFC North.
The numbers tell a story of resilience and improvement. After three consecutive seasons with double-digit losses, the Bears’ 11-4 mark in 2025 is a testament to the impact of Johnson’s leadership and the maturation of Williams. Their ascent from worst to first marks the 20th time in 23 seasons that an NFL team has leapt from the bottom of its division to the top. The last time the Bears won the North, in 2018 under first-year head coach Matt Nagy, they went 12-4 but suffered a heartbreaking wild-card loss to the Eagles after the infamous "double-doink" missed field goal. Now, with the city of Chicago buzzing, the Bears are set to host their first postseason game at Soldier Field since that fateful January night.
Chicago’s playoff seeding isn’t set in stone just yet. If they win their final two games and Seattle stumbles, the Bears could clinch the NFC’s top seed and a coveted first-round bye. Even if they fall short of that mark, their worst-case scenario is the No. 3 seed—a far cry from the uncertainty that has dogged the franchise in recent years. Potential playoff matchups loom large, with the possibility of facing the rival Packers for the third time in six weeks in the wild-card round.
Elsewhere in the NFL, the playoff picture is taking shape. The Baltimore Ravens’ victory kept their own postseason hopes alive, moving to 8-8 and staying in the hunt for the AFC’s final wild-card spot. The Houston Texans, under coach DeMeco Ryans, secured a third straight playoff berth with a 20-16 win over the Los Angeles Chargers, while the Denver Broncos clinched their division, ending the Kansas City Chiefs’ nine-year reign atop the AFC West. Twelve of the NFL’s 14 playoff spots are now locked in, with only a few berths left to be decided in the season’s final weeks.
For the Bears, though, the focus is squarely on the present—and the opportunity that lies ahead. The city’s faithful fans, long starved for postseason success, can finally look forward to meaningful January football at Soldier Field. As general manager Ryan Poles declared nearly three years ago, the Bears have "taken the North," and with a young core, a dynamic coach, and a franchise quarterback, they’re determined to keep it. The next chapter begins Sunday night against the 49ers, with the NFC’s top seed and a shot at history still in play.
