Most Hopeful NFL Fanbases Heading Into 2026

By Christopher Boan

Apr 22nd, 2026 9:24 AM EDT

Dolphins fans enter the year with a new QB and coach looking to right the ship (USATODAY)

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With the NFL Draft kicking off from Downtown Pittsburgh on Thursday, it’s officially the most hopeful time of the league year, with even the most hapless franchises having reason for optimism, thanks to possibly landing a generational talent through the seven-round event.

To get a sense of which NFL fanbases have the most reason for optimism in 2026, Bookies.com broke down each of the league’s 32 teams across five metrics, delivering a total score of that collective’s hope in the new league year.

Methodology

The Hopefulness Index ranks all 32 NFL fan bases on a 0-100 score built from five equally weighted components (20% each), each rescaled 0-100 across the league.

Which NFL Fanbases Have Reason For Hope?  

Despite their lackluster season in 2025, there’s still ample reason for football fans in Kansas City to keep their chins up, as the Chiefs scored the most points leaguewide, with 88.8, well ahead of the next closest club (the Philadelphia Eagles, with 74.6).  

While K.C.’s 6-11 record last year was anything but pretty, it does little to put a dent in the franchise’s winning ways of late, with three Super Bowl titles and two more appearances in the Big Game since 2019, along with 96 wins since the start of the 2018 season (compared with 37 losses).  

Throw in Kansas City’s solid Super Bowl odds for the upcoming season, with oddsmakers from DraftKings Sportsbook giving Andy Reid’s squad +1500 odds (good for fifth leaguewide, alongside the Green Bay Packers) and the team’s win total over/under of 10.5 on the Boston-based sportsbook’s board and you have ample evidence for why the Chiefs still have the most hope leaguewide.  

Eagles, Lions In Good Standing

The story’s much the same with the Eagles, who enter 2026 with the same win total over/under on DraftKings Sportsbook, along with the 11th best Super Bowl odds in the NFL (alongside the Houston Texans and Denver Broncos), at +1800.  

Since 2021, Nick Sirianni’s team has won 59 games (to 26 losses), while capturing two NFC East championships and that championship over the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX.  

At No. 3 you have a franchise that was among the NFL’s worst for years, in the Detroit Lions, with head coach Dan Campbell taking the NFC North stalwarts to the postseason in 2023 and 2024 before missing out despite going 9-8 last year.  

During that stretch, Detroit earned the club’s first playoff win since 1991 during that 2023 campaign, outlasting the Los Angeles Rams (24-23) in the Wild Card Round before beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Divisional Round (31-23) and falling to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game, 34-31.  

This year, Campbell and the Lions enter the league year with the eighth best Super Bowl odds on DraftKings Sportsbook, at +1700, to go with a win total over/under of 10.5 and +1200 odds of finishing the year with the most regular season wins in the NFL, helping Detroit to a score of 71.8 points, good for third in the league.  

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Who Else Has Reason To Be Hopeful This NFL Season 

Despite stubbing their collective toes each time, the San Francisco 49ers enter the 2026 season primed to finally get over the hump in the playoffs, holding the seventh best Super Bowl odds (alongside the New England Patriots) at +1600 and having +245 odds of winning the NFC West (ranking behind the defending champion Seattle Seahawks, at +140 and the Los Angeles Rams, at +175).  

Still, San Francisco has made the playoffs in four of the last five seasons, including the team’s 2023 Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs and successive NFC Championship Game defeats in 2021 and 2022.  

While last year’s Divisional Round loss to the Seahawks put a damper on what was another solid season in the South Bay, there’s ample reason for optimism in San Francisco, which is why the Niners have the fourth highest score NFL-wide, at 69.2.  

Our fifth place team has been in a similar close-but-no-cigar position of late as San Francisco and Detroit, with the Green Bay Packers reaching the postseason three years in a row but failing to advance further than the Divisional Round.  

While Green Bay has won 76 games since the start of 2019, including three straight 13-3 campaigns in 2019, 2020 and 2021, they’ve had little to show for it, with two straight NFC Championship Game losses in 2019 and 2020 being the furthest they’ve gone during that span.  

Still, Jordan Love and the Packers enter 2026 tied with the Chiefs for the fifth best Super Bowl odds leaguewide, at +1500, while Green Bay has the second-best NFC North title odds on BetMGM Sportsbook, at +190, just behind Campbell’s Lions (+175).  

For now, fans of the Packers join an elite quintet of NFL fanbases that have ample reason for optimism this season, as Green Bay looks to bring home the club’s first title since Super Bowl XLV in 2027. 

Miami Blues

Last in hope entering the year is none other than the Miami Dolphins, who parted ways with both Mike McDaniel and Tua Tagovailoa in the offseason and are entering a new era with Jeff Hafley and Malik Willis.

Both are unproven as a head coach and starting QB, and in a division with Josh Allen and Drake Maye, optimism is not high for Year 1 in Miami.

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