In one metric, at least, the Chicago Bears are clearly a top-10 team in the NFL.
According to a new report from Brand Finance, the Bears rank as the eighth-strongest brand in the NFL for 2025, earning a Brand Strength
Index score of 76.7 out of 100. The Dallas Cowboys (92.5), Philadelphia Eagles (91.4), and Kansas City Chiefs (89.0) lead the way in brand strength, which differs from brand valuation, and NFC North rivals Green Bay (79.2) and Detroit (77.7) rank fifth and sixth, respectively.
The site defines brand strength as “the efficacy of a brand’s performance on intangible measures relative to its competitors,” including factors like “Marketing Investment, Stakeholder Equity, and the impact of those on Business Performance.”
League-wide, the Dallas Cowboys remain the NFL’s most valuable brand at $3 billion, followed by the Philadelphia Eagles and Las Vegas Raiders, at $1.3 and $1.2 billion, respectively. (The Bears rank 11th at $825 million.) But Chicago’s inclusion among the top 10 strongest brands signals something more meaningful than just financial performance. It reflects just how diehard Chicago’s football fan culture is even through lean years.
The report notes that U.S. sports fans rank Chicago’s supporters among the most passionate in the country—something that helped the Bears’ brand value climb 11% compared to last year, even as the combined value of all 32 NFL teams fell by 10%.
It certainly helps that the 2025 Bears, backed by an ascending Caleb Williams and new head coach Ben Johnson, look like they’re finally worth the optimism and faith Bears fans put into this team. Though Chicago’s technically last in the NFC North, they’re 3-2 at the moment and firmly in the early playoff mix.
For a team that’s been defined as much by its resilience as its history, 2025 could mark the beginning of a new era — one where the on-field product finally matches Chicago’s enduring brand as a charter NFL franchise.
