At long last, the Chicago Bears have taken the North.
With the Green Bay Packers’ 41-24 loss Saturday night against the Baltimore Ravens, the Bears clinched the NFC North. Their first division title since 2018 guarantees they will begin the playoffs with a home game.
A week ago, the Bears clinched their first playoff appearance since 2020 with a dramatic win against the Packers and a Detroit Lions loss the next day.
Now they’re officially kings of the NFC North. For the first time since general manager Ryan Poles took over the franchise’s football operations in January 2022 — and declared the team’s goal was to “take the North and never give it back” — the Bears finally can say they’ve accomplished it.
It has been a long road for a team that Poles tore down to the studs in 2022, trading away much of the veteran talent in what became a multiyear rebuild. The Bears went 3-14 that year, then followed it with a 7-10 season in 2023 and a 5-12 finish last year.
But in Year 1 under new coach Ben Johnson, the Bears are trending up and gearing up for a playoff run in January. Winning the NFC North is a big step, but it’s also not the ultimate goal. Plenty remains out in front of this team to be accomplished.
The Bears’ playoff seed is not set. There’s still a chance they could earn the No. 1 seed in the NFC, which would come with a first-round bye. They take on the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday night in a game with significant seeding implications. The 49ers also still could win their division and the No. 1 seed. The Bears will finish the regular season with a home game against the Lions next week.
To win the No. 1 seed, the Bears need to win their final two games and hope for a Seattle Seahawks loss either this weekend against the Carolina Panthers or next week against the 49ers.
Johnson has given no indication whether he will play his starters or rest them in Week 18. Asked about it Friday, he said his focus is on the 49ers.
“I’m not even thinking about anything beyond this game right now,” Johnson said. “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.”
No matter how the seeding shakes out, it won’t change the fact the Bears are NFC North champions. It’s their fifth division title since the NFL went to four-team divisions in 2002 and the franchise’s 12th division title in the Super Bowl era, going back to the days of the old NFC Central.