{"id":13794,"date":"2025-12-02T10:49:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T10:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.365scores.com\/news\/?p=13794"},"modified":"2025-12-02T11:40:41","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T11:40:41","slug":"super-bowl-contenders-pretenders-2025-nfl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.365scores.com\/news\/super-bowl-contenders-pretenders-2025-nfl","title":{"rendered":"Who Are the Super Bowl Contenders and Pretenders in This Wild 2025 NFL Season?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The 2025 NFL<\/a> season has moved into December, and it has been a wild 13 weeks with plenty of surprises from Super Bowl contenders struggling to some new blood in the AFC trying to turn the clock back a decade when the Patriots, Colts, and Broncos were among the most relevant teams. That\u2019s a notable departure from the usual suspects in the Chiefs<\/a>, Bills, and Ravens, who are not guaranteed a single division title between them this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not to be outdone, the NFC is currently led by the Chicago Bears<\/a> (9-3) in the No. 1 seed position a year after they finished 5-12, so that\u2019s another big story as the Philadelphia Eagles\u2019 title defense has been heavily criticized each week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the overarching story of this 2025 NFL season has been the way last year\u2019s best teams and this year\u2019s Super Bowl favorites have by and large struggled as a group<\/strong>. Much of this came to a head in Week 13 when we saw the Lions, Chiefs, Ravens, and Eagles<\/a> all lose as favorites on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the Patriots and Broncos have both won 10 games in a row, remarkable streaks for teams who started the year 1-2. Throw in the Bears going 9-1 since an 0-2 start, and you have some very unlikely names vying for the No. 1 seeds. Think coaching doesn\u2019t matter? Should the Bears and Patriots finish No. 1, it\u2019d be the first time since the 1981 Bengals and 49ers where both No. 1 seeds had losing records the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alas, we have five weeks to go before that is decided, but it sure is getting interesting as these teams keep winning while the preseason favorites seem to be getting worse at the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NFL is no stranger to yearly fluctuation at the top with teams falling off quickly and new contenders emerging. The draft, salary cap, and schedule rotation basically encourages a level of parity. Maybe we\u2019ve actually experienced too much consistent winning with six of 2024\u2019s eight division winners being teams who won the division in 2023 too, including every AFC division winner, and a 4-year run for Tampa Bay and 2-year run for Detroit. Maybe this is just regression to the mean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"TAMPA,
(Photo by Kevin Sabitus\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But it is bordering on historic to see this many top teams fall off at the same time. To be fair, we\u2019re only going into Week 14, almost nothing has been clinched, and for all we know it could be a Chiefs vs. Eagles Super Bowl in February after a No. 7 at No. 5 AFC Championship Game between the Bills and Chiefs. Probably not, but it\u2019s still technically possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, we thought this was a good time to look at why so many teams we expected to be the best aren\u2019t right now, and which of these new contenders we should really buy into.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, and Bo Nix are 29-1 in their last 30 starts after their teams started 1-6.

Changing of the guard or just that weird 2025 season where three 2nd-year QBs went on crazy winning streaks?<\/p>— Scott Kacsmar (@ScottKacsmar) December 2, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote>