Analysis: What to make of the weird NFC North?

At roughly a quarter of the way through the 2025 NFL season, the best way to sum up the strength of the NFC North is with a firm, definitive …

A: Ask again later; B: Cannot predict now; C: Reply hazy, try again.

Answer? D: All of the above.

The division has 11 victories. Only the NFC West has more (12).

But …

The Lions, Packers, Vikings and Bears are a combined 2-4 against teams that currently have a winning record. The Packers are 2-0, the Lions and Vikings 0-1 and the Bears 0-2.

The 4-1 Lions are riding a four-game winning streak.

They’ve beaten four losing teams with a combined 6-13 record.

The Packers beat the Lions and Washington, the division’s two best wins.

But …

They also lost to Cleveland 13-10, the division’s worst loss.

The Lions appear to be the class of the division going forward.

The next four weeks have them at Kansas City, home to Tampa Bay, off and home to the Vikings.

What kind of shape the Vikings will be in four weeks from now is anyone’s guess. You’d like to think the injury bug can’t get any worse, but raise your hand if you thought Sunday’s game-winning drive against the Browns would feature Carson Wentz behind a backup left tackle who shifted from right tackle earlier in the game, an undrafted left guard, a third-string center who never played the position in a game and a backup to the backup at right tackle.

Where the division goes from here, who knows?

Let’s take a look at some of what we’ve seen around the North so far:

Jared Goff, Detroit | The Lions’ still-underrated star has joined Peyton Manning as the only quarterbacks ever to complete at least 75% of their passes (75.2) with at least 12 touchdowns (12) and a passer rating of at least 120.0 (120.7) through five games.

Carson Wentz, Minnesota | Completing 9 of 9 passes for 71 yards on the 10-play, 80-yard game-winning drive against the Browns’ top-ranked defense raised Wentz’s record to 2-1.

New rule: When you do stuff like that, you should get to keep the starting job until you don’t do stuff like that. Call it the Nick Foles Rule. Wentz knows a thing or two about that one.

174 | That’s how many points the Lions have scored. It’s also a franchise record through five games, and it comes, unfortunately, at an embarrassing moment in time for those of us who thought losing last year’s offensive coordinator, Ben Johnson, to the Bears would be a significant blow for the Lions. The Lions have scored 34 or more points in four straight games and lead the league in scoring average (34).

Packers 27, Lions 13 | Week 1

Let’s not assume the Lions were just off by their own account that day. The Packers rank second in fewest yards allowed per play (4.46) and per pass (5.24). Imagine how good they’d be if they had more than two takeaways, which ranks 30th.

The rest of the division doesn’t have a signature win.

Sorry, but Detroit’s 38-30 win at Baltimore in Week 3 has lost its luster as a signature moment. And beating the Bengals 48-10 (Vikings) or the Cowboys 31-14 (Bears) fall short of the bar set here as well.

6.15 | That’s how many yards per rushing attempt the Bears are allowing. (They actually won at Vegas in Week 4 while allowing 7.7 yards a carry).

Should Chicago maintain this putrid pace, it would be historic. The franchise record is 5.35 in 2013. The NFL record is 6.4 by the 0-8 Cincinnati Reds in 1934. No team has been worse than 5.5 since the 1959 Washington Redskins.

Tate Ratledge, right guard, Lions | Those of us predicting the Lions’ demise also based some of our logic on Detroit losing guard Kevin Zeitler to free agency and center Frank Ragnow to retirement. Unfortunately, we forgot that no team in the division is better at assembling talent than the folks currently working in Detroit.

Aidan Hutchinson, Edge, Lions | As the Vikings cope with the kind of decimation that eventually took down the Lions’ defense a year ago, Hutchinson is making up for all that time he lost last year with a broken leg.

According to NextGen Stats, Hutchinson posted on Sunday in Cincinnati his third career game with at least five quarterback hits, one sack and a forced fumble. The only player to do it more times since the stat was started in 2006 is Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt (five).

Stay tuned | The way injuries consume this league, it’s darn near impossible to look too far ahead. So, naturally, we will look a month into the future for the NFC North.

Shield your eyes, Vikings fans.

The Packers and Bears have already had their bye weeks. The Vikings get theirs in Week 6 while the Lions have theirs in Week 8.

1. Vikings: BYE, Philadelphia (4-1), at L.A. Chargers (3-2), at Detroit (4-1).

That’s three teams with a combined 11-4 record, two on the road and one on a short week (Thursday nighter in L.A.). They do, however, get a mini bye before playing at Detroit.

2. Lions: At Kansas City (2-3), Tampa Bay (4-1), BYE, Minnesota (3-2).

Three teams with a 9-6 record, but two at home.

3. Packers: Cincinnati (2-3), at Arizona (2-3), at Pittsburgh (3-1), Carolina (2-3).

4. Bears: At Washington (3-2), New Orleans (1-4), at Baltimore (1-4), at Cincinnati (2-3).