From worst to first: How the Patriots and Bears topped the NFL standings

The New England Patriots and Chicago Bears were just playing out the string late in lost seasons when the calendar flipped to December last year.

Now they find themselves at the top of the NFL standings after remarkable turnarounds.

It's been more than three decades since the two teams that earned the top playoff seeds in each conference had missed the postseason the previous year.

That last happened in 1992, when Pittsburgh topped the AFC and San Francisco earned the No. 1 seed in the NFC after missing the 1991 playoffs despite a 10-win season. The only other times it occurred since seeding began in 1975 came in the nine-game strike season of 1982 with Washington and the Los Angeles Raiders, and in 1981 with San Francisco and Cincinnati.

Making this even more unusual is the fact that both the Bears and Patriots have rebounded under first-year coaches.

Ben Johnson has transformed a Chicago team already assured its first winning season since 2018. This is the latest in a season the Bears have been in the top spot in the NFC since 2006, when they last reached the Super Bowl.

Mike Vrabel has led a similar turnaround in New England after the team had dropped off in recent years under Bill Belichick and Jerod Mayo. The Patriots lost 26 games the previous two seasons — one shy of Carolina for most in the league — but now have the most wins in the NFL with 11.

Four teams have won the Super Bowl under a first-year coach, with Denver the last to do it in the 2015 season under Gary Kubiak. The others were Jon Gruden in 2002 with Tampa Bay, George Seifert in 1989 with San Francisco and Don McCafferty in 1970 with the Baltimore Colts.

Gruden and Kubiak had coached other teams, meaning Johnson will try to join McCafferty and Seifert as the only coaches to win a Super Bowl in their first year as an NFL head coach.

Both teams also have second-year quarterbacks, with Caleb Williams in Chicago and Drake Maye in New England. There have never been two QBs that inexperienced starting for the top playoff seeds.

With more and more teams being aggressive on fourth down, the success — or failure — of those plays has a large impact on who wins these days.

That was clearly evident in two games this past week, with Green Bay scoring touchdowns on a pair of fourth downs in a win at Detroit on Thanksgiving, and Carolina doing the same on Sunday in an upset victory over the Los Angeles Rams.

In all, there have been 74 offensive touchdowns scored on fourth-down plays so far this season, breaking the record for an entire season of 73 set in 2021.

There have already been more than twice as many fourth-down TDs this season as there were in the entire 2017 season (34). Philadelphia was one of the most aggressive teams that season and won the Super Bowl, contributing to a marked increase in fourth-down tries since then.

While the Rams were on the wrong end of those fourth downs against the Panthers, they are tied with Kansas City for the most fourth-down TDs this season with six. The Panthers, Lions and Jets all have five.

Denver has gotten off to a 10-2 start in a most unusual fashion.

The Broncos have trailed in all 12 games this season before rallying to win 10 of them. How unusual is that?

This is the 202nd time that a team trailed in each of the first 12 games of a season. Only eight teams besides the Broncos had a winning record after the 12th game, including the Cowboys at 6-5-1 this season.

Only one team before Denver won more than seven of the first 12 games after trailing in every one — the Houston Oilers opened 8-4 in 1978.

Of the seven teams to do it before this season, only three made the postseason, with the Oilers the only one to win even one playoff game. Houston won two playoff games that season before losing to Pittsburgh in the AFC title game.

Denver has won six games by three points or fewer — one shy of the most in any season — with the last four games being wins by three, three, three and one point. The only other team to win four straight games by three points or fewer was the 1986 New York Giants, who went on to win the Super Bowl.

For decades, the Raiders were one of the most successful franchises in the NFL with three Super Bowl championships, two more trips to the title game and 16 division titles in a 36-year span ending in 2002.

Since then, it's been almost nothing but losing. The Raiders were officially eliminated from playoff contention with a 31-14 loss to the Chargers on Sunday, marking the 23rd straight season that the team will fail to win either a playoff game or a division title. Only two other franchises have had longer streaks since the 1970 merger, with Detroit doing it 29 straight seasons from 1994-2022 and Buffalo for 24 straight from 1996-2019.

This season has been particularly bad for Las Vegas with a 2-10 record that includes five losses by at least 17 points.

The offense has been the biggest issue, with the team's current streak of four straight games allowing at least four sacks and rushing for fewer than 75 yards tied for the longest in the Super Bowl era with the 2016 Browns.

Inside the Numbers dives into NFL statistics, streaks and trends each week. For more Inside the Numbers, head here.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

Denver Broncos outside linebacker Nik Bonitto (15) blocks a pass attempt by Washington Commanders quarterback Marcus Mariota (8) on a failed two-point conversion attempt in overtime of an NFL football game Monday, Dec. 1, 2025, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Carolina Panthers wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan celebrates after scoring against the Los Angeles Rams during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Rusty Jones)

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks (13) makes a catch for a touchdown over Detroit Lions safety Thomas Harper (12) during the first half an NFL football game in Detroit, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) celebrates his team's win over the Philadelphia Eagles in an NFL football game, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye looks to pass against the New York Giants during the first half of an NFL football game Monday, Dec. 1, 2025, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Best player. Best team. Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi is the unquestioned force in Major League Soccer right now, on a run like nobody else the league has ever seen.

The 38-year-old Argentine star — and captain of the MLS Cup champions — has become the first back-to-back MVP in MLS history, getting announced Tuesday as this year’s winner of the league’s top individual honor.

Messi — thanking his teammates and saying he couldn't have won the award without them — accepted the trophy at the opening ceremony of his Messi Cup youth tournament, which kicked off Tuesday. That's why the award announcement was delayed until after the season; Messi wanted kids to be part of it.

“He’s a unicorn, man — not just for what he does on the field,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber said Tuesday after the on-field ceremony in misty conditions. "He's just a special man.”

The back-to-back MVPs represent another first for Messi in what seems like a never-ending list of his career accomplishments and was widely expected, almost assumed after he had a league-best 29 goals along with 19 assists during the regular season.

He also becomes just the second two-time MVP the league has ever seen, joining Preki, the winner of the award in 1997 and 2003. The other winners are all one-time MVP recipients.

“He was fantastic the whole season, with the numbers and also with the commitment,” Inter Miami coach and longtime Messi teammate Javier Mascherano said after Saturday's MLS final.

Messi played in barely half of Inter Miami’s regular-season games in 2024, and that sparked some doubt as to whether he deserved to win the MVP award.

He won a close vote last year. This year, there was no debate.

Messi got 70.4% of the total vote — the biggest winning total since Toronto's Sebastian Giovinco in 2015. San Diego’s Anders Dreyer was second with 11.2%, followed by LAFC’s Denis Bouanga (7.3%), Cincinnati’s Evander (4.8%) and Nashville’s Sam Surridge (2.4%).

“There’s something about the way he’s wired," Garber said of Messi while attending an Inter Miami match earlier in this season’s playoffs. “He’s thinking about the game like nobody else ever has. His intensity and desire to win is what makes him the greatest of all time. There are a lot of really competitive players, but he has this special sauce, this dynamic that has him so focused on doing what he needs to do to win games.”

This award joins dozens of other individual honors in Messi’s career, including eight Ballon d’Or titles, eight Pichichi trophies as La Liga’s top scorer, six La Liga best player nods, three Best FIFA Men’s Player awards, three UEFA Men’s Player of the Year wins, two FIFA World Cup Golden Balls and no fewer than 15 selections as Argentina’s best player in a given year. He’s also been part of winning 47 trophies for club and country — including the 2022 World Cup — making him the most decorated player the men’s game has ever seen.

“The reality,” Mascherano said as the regular season was ending, “is that Leo clears all doubts.”

Messi becomes the sixth player in MLS history to win MVP and a championship in the same season. Of the previous five, only Atlanta United’s Josef Martinez in 2018 won MVP, a title and the Golden Boot as the league’s scoring champion all in the same year, another hat trick of sorts that Messi achieved in 2025.

Indeed, there has been no one like him — in MLS for certain, and quite possibly anywhere.

Forget winning back-to-back MVPs. There have been only four players in MLS history — Carlos Valderrama in 1996 and 1997, Marco Etcheverry in 1998 and 1999, David Villa in 2016 and 2017, and Martinez in 2018 and 2019 — to win the award one year and then even be a finalist for MVP in the following season.

And Messi isn’t planning on leaving Miami anytime soon. He’s signed a three-year extension, meaning he’ll be there when Inter Miami — a franchise that has seen its value explode since his arrival 2½ years ago — opens its new stadium near Miami International Airport next season.

“Leo is a winner. It’s simple as that,” Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham said. “And I know that sounds like an easy and an obvious thing to say because of what he’s won. There's no player that has probably won what he has won and done it the way he’s done it. There’s more to what makes him the greatest than just what he does on the field. I think everyone in Miami, everyone around the MLS, has seen what he’s done for this league and this city and this country. But he continues to raise that level, and that’s what great players do.”

The phenomenon of having a back-to-back MVP has occurred in each of the other major U.S. pro sports leagues in the past plenty of times, with the most recent instance of each happening fairly recently.

In Major League Baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani and the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge have won the National League and American League MVP awards, respectively, in each of the last two seasons; Ohtani won the AL MVP award with the Los Angeles Angels in 2023 as well.

A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces has won the WNBA’s MVP award in each of the last two years. Denver’s Nikola Jokic was the most recent NBA player to win MVP back-to-back, doing so in 2021 and 2022. Aaron Rodgers — then of Green Bay — won two straight NFL MVP awards in 2020 and 2021, and Washington’s Alex Ovechkin won the NHL’s Hart Trophy in 2008 and 2009 for the most recent occurrence of someone claiming that award in consecutive years.

But never in MLS — until now.

“Great players always believe that they can win more and raise the level,” Beckham said. "And that’s what Leo’s doing.”

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Inter Miami's Lionel Messi hoists the trophy alongside teammates after defeating the Vancouver Whitecaps in the MLS Cup final soccer match, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)

Inter Miami's Lionel Messi, centre, carries the trophy to celebrate with his teammates after defeating the Vancouver Whitecaps during the MLS Cup final soccer match, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)

Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi arrives for an MLS Eastern Conference final soccer match against New York FC, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

David Beckham poses with the MLS Cup trophy with Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)