The Chicago Bears took control of the No. 1 seed in the NFC for the 2025 NFL Playoffs over the weekend, but don’t expect it to go to the team’s head.
The Bears moved from No. 3 to No. 2 in the NFC standings last week after knocking off the Philadelphia Eagles on Black Friday in a 24-15 statement win that improved them to 9-3 on the season. Two days later, they climbed even higher to the conference’s top seed when the Carolina Panthers upset the Los Angeles Rams, who slipped below Chicago.
Now, the Bears have a direct path to clinching the NFC’s first-round bye in the NFL playoffs as they head into their final five-game stretch of the 2025 regular season.
To head coach Ben Johnson, though, a technical rise to No. 1 “doesn’t mean anything.”
“It doesn’t mean anything,” Johnson told reporters on December 1. “There’s five games left, so we’ve got a long ways to go. We have not been guaranteed a spot in the tournament yet. We have to earn that right and the only way you can earn that right is by finding a way to win the next game, so that’s where our sole focus is.”
How Likely Are Chicago Bears to Make NFL Playoffs?
Johnson is wise for not buying into the team’s current status as the top seed in the NFC. They have five games left to play, including three against NFC North division rivals and another against the playoff-contending San Francisco 49ers in the same conference.
That’s a grueling stretch, even for a Bears team that has been hot for two months now.
While Chicago might have a challenging time holding onto the No. 1 seed, though, the chances are quite high that the Bears will return to the NFL playoffs this season.
According to PlayoffStatus.com, the Bears have just an 11% of missing the 2025 playoffs heading into Week 14’s matchup with the Green Bay Packers. Winning any four of their five remaining games would guarantee them a spot in the playoffs, but they could also potentially lose out and still make the postseason — if other NFC contenders fall short.
The division matchups will carry the most weight for the Bears. If they can beat the Packers twice and the Detroit Lions once in their final five-game stretch, they will see their chances of making the playoffs — and winning the NFC North — vastly improve.
Bears’ Playoff Chase Truly Begins With Packers Game
The Bears might have gotten the talking heads buzzing about their ability to contend in the playoffs after defeating the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles last week, but most Bears fans would say the same thing: it won’t feel real until they beat the Packers.
The Bears and Packers are one of the NFL’s oldest rivalries, but it has not gone great for the Bears over the past several decades against Hall of Fame-caliber quarterbacks such as Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers. While Chicago won the last meeting on a blocked field goal in Week 18 of the 2024 season, Green Bay had won 11 straight before that.
The Bears could still punch their ticket to the NFL playoffs if they lose both games to the Packers, but it would go a long way toward validating their status as contenders if they could at least split their divisional matchups with their biggest rival. The Packers are not only a thorn in their side but also one of the conference’s strongest teams.
The first chance arrives when the Bears (9-3) kick off against the Packers (8-3-1) at Lambeau Field at 4:25 p.m. ET on Sunday, December 7.
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