If Week 1 NFC North action taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected. Let’s have a look at how each starting quarterback fared as they steered their team through the first game of the season on September 13, 2026. Then, we’ll rank each performance, noting key stats and things to watch as the season progresses.
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NFC North Week 1 Review
Chicago Bears at Carolina Panthers
Ninety-six points. Fifty-five of them before halftime. In Charlotte, the Bears and Panthers turned opening Sunday into a track meet, and Chicago’s 59-37 win became the highest-scoring Week 1 game in NFL history. Caleb Williams went 21-of-29 for 269 yards and two touchdowns, and then ran for 65 yards and two more scores. He became the first player in franchise history to clear 200 passing yards, 50 rushing yards, and multiple touchdowns both ways in a single game.
New Orleans Saints at Detroit Lions
Detroit’s afternoon was a different kind of wild. The Lions led New Orleans 21-0, and they’d forced three Tyler Shough turnovers and five sacks along the way. Then the Saints and their promising second-year QB came roaring back to life in the fourth quarter; Shough finished with 410 yards, and it took overtime, a 4-yard Jared Goff touchdown to Amon-Ra St. Brown, and a Saints failed two-point conversion attempt to survive 31-30.
Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings
Then Minnesota. Green Bay led 22-10, and the Vikings answered with 29 straight points to win 39-22. Jordan Love threw for 387 yards, including an 81-yard touchdown to Christian Watson, and still lost by 17. Add it up, and three games produced 218 points, with three of the four teams clearing 30. And all of Minnesota’s success came without the help of Kyler Murray, with the new addition having to abide by concussion protocol, allowing backup Carson Wentz to step in and deliver the fireworks.
The NFC North Has Talent
The NFC North is arguably the NFL’s most stacked division, with all four teams in the quartet more than capable of ending the year as Kings of the North. So, with the 2026 season well underway, how do the four starting quarterbacks stack up against each other? Here are our power rankings in the early stages of the new campaign.
#1 Caleb Williams, Chicago Bears
It’s hard to imagine Williams walking into the Bank of America Stadium tunnel without the Rams on his mind, three interceptions in an overtime playoff loss eight months earlier. He answered in the loudest way possible, and he did it without a single catch from Colston Loveland, his top tight end.
That’s the point about him. He ranked 16th in ESPN’s QBR last year, with a league-worst 28 drops dragging his completion rate down to 58.1%. Yet he threw for a franchise-record 3,942 yards, won 11 games, took Chicago to its first division title since 2018, and now owns a franchise record with eight straight games of multiple touchdown passes. He’s a dual-threat playmaker, not yet a polished pocket passer, and the numbers keep winning anyway.
The risk is up front. Drew Dalman retired, Garrett Bradbury arrived from New England, Ozzy Trapilo is coming back from a patellar tendon injury, and a defense that gave up 37 points can’t keep leaning on him. He has the highest ceiling in the division, but tough tests are just around the corner.
The Bears make the trip to face rivals Green Bay at Lambeau Field in Week 5 in what will likely be Packers defensive behemoth Micah Parsons’ first game back from injury. Some US legal sportsbooks like BetMGM and BetRivers already have prelimary odds on this game. While offshore Bears Vs Packers odds for that October showdown haven’t yet been published, one can imagine the hosting Packers will be narrowly favored, even though Chicago have beaten their archrivals in three of their last four meetings.
Should Williams come through that test with a fourth win in five, attention will begin to turn from a Divisional Title to a deep playoff run.
#2 Jared Goff, Detroit Lions
Blowing a 21-0 lead and winning anyway tells you something about Goff and something about Detroit. The pocket passer led the league in nearly every category last year except wins, throwing for 4,564 yards and 34 touchdowns against eight interceptions, and the Lions still finished 9-8 and missed the playoffs. Coordinator John Morton lost play-calling duties after eight games and was fired.
Now comes Drew Petzing from Arizona, and this is Year 1 of the new arrangement, not Year 2. Goff is a five-time Pro Bowler with three straight 4,500-yard, 30-touchdown seasons, and he still carries a question mark because an offense that needs overtime to get past a team it sacked five times hasn’t found itself yet. David Montgomery’s gone to Houston, Jahmyr Gibbs has his extension, and there are new starters on the line.
The resume is the strongest here. Goff’s prime years don’t wait for a system to click.
#3 Jordan Love, Green Bay Packers
Is this the quarterback who tied for third in fourth-quarter comebacks last year, or is a compromised roster now the whole story? Week 1 argued both. Love threw for 387 yards and an 81-yard touchdown to Watson, and he was pressured on nearly half his dropbacks.
The $220 million extension followed a career-best year: 66.3% completions, 3,381 yards, 23 touchdowns, six interceptions, and a 101.2 rating. Then came a December 20 concussion after an Austin Booker hit, and a five-game losing streak to close, including the Wild Card collapse against Chicago from 21-3 up.
The damage since has been steady. Micah Parsons is out with a torn ACL, running back Josh Jacobs is on the commissioner’s exempt list, and Romeo Doubs and Dontayvion Wicks are gone, with Jonnu Smith and Jonathan Gannon arriving on the sideline. Love still has the talent. He just needs somebody to block for him.
#4 Carson Wentz, Minnesota Vikings
Picture the sideline: Murray leaves with a first-quarter concussion, and Wentz, a 2017 MVP frontrunner whose ACL tear let Nick Foles win the Super Bowl, suddenly has the game. He’d re-signed for about $3 million and won the backup job over J.J. McCarthy only days earlier.
He went 12-of-19 for 133 yards, three touchdowns, and a 123.5 rating, two scores to Justin Jefferson and one to T. J. Hockenson. No blinking. That’s a man with a 49-49-1 record across four franchises since 2017, and nothing left to prove except that he can still do it.
He ranks fourth because the job is borrowed. But Minnesota’s floor just got a lot higher.
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