The NFC North emerged as the strongest division in football last season when the Detroit Lions had to go to a Week 18 meeting with the Minnesota Vikings to emerge as the winner with 15 victories.

The Vikings (14-3) and Green Bay Packers (11-6) followed, and the circuit is arguably more rugged this season with the emergence of the Chicago Bears, who at 5-3 have the same record as the Lions and are just behind the Packers (5-2-1). With the Vikings at 4-4 after an upset win in Detroit last Sunday, it’s a wide-open four-team race with nine weeks remaining.

In the locker room, Bears players are taking the cue of first-year coach Ben Johnson, who declared Monday after escaping Cincinnati with a 47-42 win: “We’re right in the mix of it.”

“The parity of the NFL each and every year, it goes down

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