At least in the regular season, the NFC North was the best division in football in 2024, boasting three of the nine NFL teams who had at least a +100 point differential. The Lions, Vikings, and Packers combined for 40 wins before ultimately falling flat in the postseason.
The division promises to once again be one of the league's best and most intriguing in 2025. The Lions remain among the top Super Bowl contenders, although they'll have to prove they can still thrive without former coordinators Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn. The Vikings are breaking in a new quarterback around an upgraded roster. The Packers are highly talented. The Bears, coming off a 5-12 season, hired Johnson away from Detroit and are hoping for a big second-year leap from their former No. 1 overall pick.
In the next few weeks, Vikings On SI will be ranking various aspects of the four teams in the division, doing our best to take an unbiased look at the North. We're starting with the most important position in all of sports. Here's our ranking of the NFC North's quarterback rooms for the 2025 season (which is largely just a ranking of the starters).
The Vikings have to be in this spot, given that McCarthy hasn't yet made his regular season debut. I've fully bought into the hype around the 22-year-old and believe he has a chance to be very good, very quickly. The way Kevin O'Connell speaks about him and the way his teammates rave about him, it's hard not to be optimistic. The simple fact that the Vikings felt comfortable letting Sam Darnold walk in free agency after a 14-3 season says a lot. But McCarthy still needs to prove it. Given his talent and mental makeup, not to mention the perfect quarterback environment he's stepping into, he could easily surpass at least one QB in the division by the end of his first real season.
In trading for Howell, the Vikings added a young backup with some moldable arm talent and starting experience.
Williams did not light the NFL on fire as a rookie. He put up solid dual-threat numbers, but completed just over 62 percent of his passes and took more sacks (68) than any other QB. The end result was a tenth-place finish in offensive rookie of the year voting despite coming into the season as the heavy favorite to win that award. Still, there are plenty of reasons to expect better results in year two. The flashes of brilliance were there, as Vikings fans who watched their Week 12 game in Chicago can tell you. The Johnson hire should be huge for Williams, especially when paired with the Bears' additions on the interior of the offensive line.
Bagent and Keenum appear to be competing for the backup job. Bagent has more athletic upside, while the 37-year-old Keenum has been around the block quite a few times.
It would not be completely unreasonable to put the Packers in the top spot on this list. Love has demonstrated an elite-level ceiling, particularly in the second half of his debut 2023 campaign. When he's on, he can do things that the top-tier QBs in the league (think Mahomes, Allen, Jackson, Burrow) are known for doing. But I think he clearly still belongs in second place in the division at this moment. He was again better in the second half of last season than the first half, and he still hasn't put together a full-season passer rating of 97 or better. Love also ended the year with an ugly three-pick showing against the juggernaut Eagles in the postseason. Green Bay drafting Texas WR Matthew Golden in the first round adds another intriguing weapon for Love to target.
Willis is a quality dual-threat backup who went 2-0 as a starter last year. Elgersma is a rookie who dominated Canadian college football.
Goff is still the best quarterback in the NFC North heading into the 2025 season. The 30-year-old threw for over 4,600 yards and 37 touchdowns last year, finishing second in the league behind Jackson with a 111.8 passer rating. He was fifth in MVP voting after leading the Lions to 15 wins. Goff certainly has benefited from playing for Johnson and having an outstanding roster around him, but he also deserves a massive amount of credit for Detroit's recent success. He won't be easily dethroned by Love or one of the 2024 draft picks this year.
Hooker and Allen are solid depth pieces who round out the best QB room in the division.