Ranking the NFC North Receivers: The Bears Still Lag Behind Their Rivals

The NFC North was by far the best division in football last year from top to bottom. All four teams finished with a winning record, two made the playoffs, and one advanced to the Divisional round. The 2026 NFL season looks to be more of the same. In ESPN's latest offseason NFL power rankings, three of the four NFC North teams are in the Top 12, and the Vikings are only a quarterback upgrade away from joining them.

Of course, it's tough to rank teams this early in the offseason. An easier task is looking at every position group for each team in the division and ranking them, one through four. We kicked this series off yesterday by ranking the NFC North quarterbacks, a list which found Caleb Williams ahead of the pack. Today, we'll look at the wide receivers. For the sake of clarity, I will weight my ranking heavily on each team's top two receivers. The other four are important, but we're still far from knowing which receivers will make the final roster, and that leads to excessive speculation.

4. Green Bay Packers

In the 2025 NFL draft, Packers fans everywhere celebrated the Matthew Golden pick, marking an end to a 23-year streak of not selecting a receiver in the first round. However, the celebration was short-lived as Golden struggled mightily in his debut season. He caught just 36 passes for 361 yards and didn't score a single regular-season touchdown. He's still young and can turn his career around, but a rookie season doesn't get much worse than that for a receiver.

Christian Watson figures to be either the first or second option for Green Bay, depending on how Golden does in training camp, but he's hardly reliable. He's already missed 20 of 68 possible games in his NFL career with multiple injuries. When he's on the field, he's a good weapon. But availability remains the best ability.

As for the rest of the room, Jayden Reed makes for a good WR3, and my guess is that their final three receivers will be some combination of Bo Melton, Savion Williams, and J Michael Sturdivant. Not a terrible group of receivers, but in the loaded NFC North, this is quite clearly the worst, both in terms of production in 2025 and upside for 2026.

3. Chicago Bears

The Bears may have earned the top spot in yesterday's position rankings, but when it comes to receivers, they have a long way to go. Rome Odunze got off to a hot start in 2025 and seemed to be on pace for an All-Pro year, but a midseason injury cooled him off significantly. 2026 is a contract year for Rome Odunze, and he'll need to finally prove that he was worth the No. 9 overall pick to earn what could be a historic contract extension.

Meanwhile, Luther Burden III inexplicably fell to the Bears in Round 2 of the 2025 NFL draft and showcased sky-high potential. He hauled in 652 yards and two touchdowns on 47 catches as a rookie, and since the Bears traded DJ Moore to the Buffalo Bills, Burden figures to see a big boost in usage and in production.

The Bears added Kalif Raymond in free agency, reuniting him with Ben Johnson, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a better, more dependable WR3. As for the final three spots, I projected last week that these would go to Zavion Thomas, JP Richardson, and Jahdae Walker. Most NFL teams would kill for a wide receiver group this talented while still possessing so much untapped potential, but I can't rank them higher than No. 3 in the NFC North.

2. Detroit Lions

Amon-Ra St. Brow — Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The Lions no doubt miss the steady presence of Ben Johnson as their offensive coordinator, but luckily for them, they have enough talent in the wide receiver room to help any coach succeed. Amon-Ra St. Brown is a bona fide stud, earning a Pro Bowl nod in every season since his rookie year, and has now added three consecutive All-Pro awards to his resume.

His counterpart, Jameson Williams, lacks the accolades, as he struggled early in his career due to injuries and suspensions. But the former No. 12 overall pick broke out in 2025 with 1,117 yards and seven touchdowns, his second consecutive season with over 1,000 receiving yards and seven touchdowns.

The rest of Detroit's receiver room is actually more questionable than Chicago's. Isaac TeSlaa showed incredible potential in his rookie season, but with just 16 catches all year, the sample size is too small to project confidently for 2026. Their final three receivers could be just about anyone currently on the roster, and that's not a good place to be in. However, the strength of St. Brown and Williams is enough to make Detroit No. 2 in the division despite some shaky depth.

1. Minnesota Vikings

Justin Jefferson remains the best wide receiver in football, period. He's averaging an insane 90 yards per game through his career, and if he plays the same number of games as the great Jerry Rice (303), he would shatter Rice's receiving record by more than 4,000 yards. In fact, at his current rate, he could break Rice's record in 50 fewer games.

Jefferson alone would likely make Minnesota's receiver group the best in the division, but he's joined by a high-floor, high-ceiling No. 2 option in Jordan Addison. His numbers suffered due to poor quarterback play in 2025, but he remains a major receiving threat every time he's on the field.

The rest of Minnesota's room almost doesn't matter. Indeed, the next four names on the Vikings' depth chart on ESPN combined for only three catches in 2025. But as long as Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison are healthy, this receiver room is the gold standard in the NFC North.

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