From worst to first: How the
Patriots and Bears topped the NFL standings
[December 03, 2025]
By JOSH DUBOW
The New England Patriots and Chicago Bears were just playing out the
string late in lost seasons when the calendar flipped to December
last year.
Now they find themselves at the top of the NFL standings after
remarkable turnarounds.
It's been more than three decades since the two teams that earned
the top playoff seeds in each conference had missed the postseason
the previous year.
That last happened in 1992, when Pittsburgh topped the AFC and San
Francisco earned the No. 1 seed in the NFC after missing the 1991
playoffs despite a 10-win season. The only other times it occurred
since seeding began in 1975 came in the nine-game strike season of
1982 with Washington and the Los Angeles Raiders, and in 1981 with
San Francisco and Cincinnati.
Making this even more unusual is the fact that both the Bears and
Patriots have rebounded under first-year coaches.
Ben Johnson has transformed a Chicago team already assured its first
winning season since 2018. This is the latest in a season the Bears
have been in the top spot in the NFC since 2006, when they last
reached the Super Bowl.
Mike Vrabel has led a similar turnaround in New England after the
team had dropped off in recent years under Bill Belichick and Jerod
Mayo. The Patriots lost 26 games the previous two seasons — one shy
of Carolina for most in the league — but now have the most wins in
the NFL with 11.
Four teams have won the Super Bowl under a first-year coach, with
Denver the last to do it in the 2015 season under Gary Kubiak. The
others were Jon Gruden in 2002 with Tampa Bay, George Seifert in
1989 with San Francisco and Don McCafferty in 1970 with the
Baltimore Colts.
Gruden and Kubiak had coached other teams, meaning Johnson will try
to join McCafferty and Seifert as the only coaches to win a Super
Bowl in their first year as an NFL head coach.
Both teams also have second-year quarterbacks, with Caleb Williams
in Chicago and Drake Maye in New England. There have never been two
QBs that inexperienced starting for the top playoff seeds.
Fourth-down aggressiveness
With more and more teams being aggressive on fourth down, the
success — or failure — of those plays has a large impact on who wins
these days.
That was clearly evident in two games this past week, with Green Bay
scoring touchdowns on a pair of fourth downs in a win at Detroit on
Thanksgiving, and Carolina doing the same on Sunday in an upset
victory over the Los Angeles Rams.
In all, there have been 74 offensive touchdowns scored on
fourth-down plays so far this season, breaking the record for an
entire season of 73 set in 2021.
There have already been more than twice as many fourth-down TDs this
season as there were in the entire 2017 season (34). Philadelphia
was one of the most aggressive teams that season and won the Super
Bowl, contributing to a marked increase in fourth-down tries since
then.
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Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) celebrates his team's
win over the Philadelphia Eagles in an NFL football game, Friday,
Nov. 28, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
While the Rams were on the wrong end of those
fourth downs against the Panthers, they are tied with Kansas City
for the most fourth-down TDs this season with six. The Panthers,
Lions and Jets all have five.
Broncos are the comeback kids
Denver has gotten off to a 10-2 start in a most unusual fashion.
The Broncos have trailed in all 12 games this season before rallying
to win 10 of them. How unusual is that?
This is the 202nd time that a team trailed in each of the first 12
games of a season. Only eight teams besides the Broncos had a
winning record after the 12th game, including the Cowboys at 6-5-1
this season.
Only one team before Denver won more than seven of the first 12
games after trailing in every one — the Houston Oilers opened 8-4 in
1978.
Of the seven teams to do it before this season, only three made the
postseason, with the Oilers the only one to win even one playoff
game. Houston won two playoff games that season before losing to
Pittsburgh in the AFC title game.
Denver has won six games by three points or fewer — one shy of the
most in any season — with the last four games being wins by three,
three, three and one point. The only other team to win four straight
games by three points or fewer was the 1986 New York Giants, who
went on to win the Super Bowl.
Commitment to mediocrity
For decades, the Raiders were one of the most successful franchises
in the NFL with three Super Bowl championships, two more trips to
the title game and 16 division titles in a 36-year span ending in
2002.
Since then, it's been almost nothing but losing. The Raiders were
officially eliminated from playoff contention with a 31-14 loss to
the Chargers on Sunday, marking the 23rd straight season that the
team will fail to win either a playoff game or a division title.
Only two other franchises have had longer streaks since the 1970
merger, with Detroit doing it 29 straight seasons from 1994-2022 and
Buffalo for 24 straight from 1996-2019.
This season has been particularly bad for Las Vegas with a 2-10
record that includes five losses by at least 17 points.
The offense has been the biggest issue, with the team's current
streak of four straight games allowing at least four sacks and
rushing for fewer than 75 yards tied for the longest in the Super
Bowl era with the 2016 Browns.
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