The 2026 season could bring a fresh batch of division winners, and the first thing that jumps out is how shaky some of last year’s champs look when you stack them up against the rest of their divisions. With training camps opening around the league, the countdown is on, and the repeat race starts with a few teams already staring at a tough climb.
At the bottom of the list sits the Carolina Panthers, who went 8-8 in 2025 and look like the least likely team to defend a division crown. The NFC South has been anything but stable, and Carolina’s path gets messy fast when you consider what else is sitting in the division. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had owned the NFC South for years before last season, while the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints both have cases of their own.
Atlanta, for example, could get average play from Tua Tagovailoa and still have enough behind a defense built on pass-rush savvy and an offense loaded with talent to win 9 or 10 games. Tampa Bay has already shown it can live in that 9- or 10-win range and still take the division.
Even New Orleans closed strong, winning four of its final five games. For Carolina, that leaves a very steep road in 2026.
Next up are the Pittsburgh Steelers, who finished 10-7 in 2025 but barely held off the rest of the AFC North. Baltimore nearly stole the division after starting 1-5, and that alone makes the Ravens a real threat if they simply get a little better injury luck. Cincinnati may be the team to watch most closely, though, after overhauling the defense this offseason and putting together what looks like the best roster in the AFC North.
Pittsburgh has questions of its own. Aaron Rodgers is an aging quarterback, and the new coaching staff still has to prove it can click quickly enough to keep the Steelers on top.
The Chicago Bears come in at No. 6 after going 11-6 in 2025, but even that kind of record may not be enough in the NFC North. This is a division that has been brutal to navigate.
In 2024, the Detroit Lions finished 15-2 and the Minnesota Vikings were right behind them at 14-3. That kind of competition leaves very little room for error.
Detroit and Green Bay both have strong rosters, and the Lions have already shown how dominant they can be, winning 27 regular-season games across the 2023 and 2024 seasons. If not for a second-half stumble, they likely would have won the division three straight times. Chicago, meanwhile, still has a defense that ranked in the bottom 10 of the league last season, which means the Bears may need to find two more wins just to stay ahead in 2026.
In Other News...
Kenny Pickett Is Putting Carolina In A Tough Spot Behind Bryce Young
Carolinas quarterback room looked different when the offseason began, with the Panthers moving on from Andy Dalton and bringing in Kenny Pickett, Will Grier and undrafted rookie Haynes King to sit behind Bryce Young. Griers retirement already thinned the group, and now the team is getting a clearer look at how the depth chart might settle once camp work starts to matter more than offseason plans.
Picketts training camp has not given Carolina much comfort, and that has opened the door for King to at least make this interesting. The Panthers are still sorting out what they want behind Young, and if Pickett does not steady himself soon, the conversation could shift from simply finding a backup to deciding whether Carolina needs to keep an extra quarterback around at all. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Suddenly Face A Huge Camp Test Up Front
The Panthers were supposed to use the start of camp to get a head start, opening early because of their Hall of Fame Game appearance. Instead, the first real test up front has arrived almost immediately, with the offensive line already being reshuffled before the pads even come on in earnest. Carolina has had to adjust around Taylor Moton and the left side as well, turning what should have been a routine summer ramp-up into a live evaluation of depth and adaptability.
Rookie Monroe Freeling has been thrust into the mix on the right side, while Rasheed Walker was brought in to help stabilize the left tackle spot after Ikem Ekwonus injury. For a team trying to build continuity, the challenge is obvious: the Panthers are now asking new pieces to settle in fast, and the early weeks of camp will tell them a lot about whether this front can hold together when the regular season arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Just Made Their Biggest Pass Rush Bet Yet
Carolina spent the early part of the offseason trying to solve a problem that showed up in plain sight all year: the pass rush never consistently threatened opposing quarterbacks. After finishing last in pressure rate and near the bottom of the sack leaderboard in 2025, the Panthers went looking for a difference-maker and found one in Jaelan Phillips, the former Eagles edge rusher whose arrival instantly changes the conversation around that front.
Phillips move to Charlotte also says plenty about how the Panthers sold the opportunity, not just the money. He pointed to the contract as a major factor in choosing Carolina, and the teams willingness to make him one of the biggest investments of the free-agent cycle shows how urgent the need felt. The question now is whether the Panthers finally have the kind of rusher who can turn a glaring weakness into something much harder for opponents to plan around. [Read more 🡒]