Six weeks into the 2024 NFL season, it seems rather clear that the NFC North is the best division in football. Each of the division’s four teams is above .500: the Minnesota Vikings are 5-0, the Detroit Lions are 4-1 and the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers are each 4-2. It’s the first time since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970 that every single team in a division has at least four wins, six weeks into the season.
Given that last fact, it’s worth considering whether this year’s NFC North is not just the best division in football, but one of the best in modern NFL history.
Amazingly, there has been only one game played between NFC North opponents so far this season (the Vikings-Packers battle in Week 4), which means these four teams are 16-4 against non-division opponents to date. That .800 winning percentage through Week 6 has been topped just one time since the league went to its current eight-division format in 2002. The 2007 AFC South began the season 11-2 against non-division opponents.
On a per-game basis, though, the 2024 NFC North has been slightly better: These four teams have outscored their non-division opponents by a combined 211 points through 20 games. That’s a plus-10.6 points per game margin. The 2007 AFC South was at plus-137 through 13 games, which left it very slightly behind at plus-10.5 per game.
Speaking of point differential… Head over to the standings page on CBSSports.com. If you scan down the point differential column, you’ll notice something interesting. First in the entire NFL in point differential? The Minnesota Vikings. Second? The Detroit Lions. Third? The Chicago Bears. And fourth? That’s right. It’s the Green Bay Packers. As far as I can tell, this is the first time a single division has accounted for the top four teams in point differential, six weeks into the season.
And NFC North teams aren’t just winning and winning by a lot; they’re controlling the games throughout the contest.
They have collectively held a lead for 61.6% of the running time of their non-division games to date, according to Tru Media. Among the 184 division-seasons since 2002, that lead share has been exceeded through six weeks just four times: the 2004 NFC East (63%), 2011 NFC North (62.5%), 2013 AFC West (65.4%) and 2019 NFC North (68.2%).
They have also collectively trailed for just 20.8% of the running time of those games. Again, just a scant few divisions have fared better to this point in the season: the 2002 AFC South (19.1%), 2004 NFC East (10.4%), 2010 AFC North (20.8%), 2013 AFC West (17.4%) and 2019 NFC North (17.1%).
Add it all up and through six weeks, this year’s NFC North has the second-best non-division record (16-4), the best point differential both overall (+211) and per game (+10.6), had held the lead for the fifth-largest share of running time (61.6%) and trailed for the sixth-smallest share of running time (20.8%) among those aforementioned 184 division-seasons played under the current divisional format. Things could obviously change over the remaining 12 weeks of the year, but at the moment, the 2024 Vikings-Lions-Bears-Packers group is indeed off to arguably the best start in modern history.
The NFC North has been historically good through six weeks, but which team will take home the division crown? Check out the latest odds on FanDuel sportsbook.
