The NFL offseason has begun, including for some of the league’s most high-profile franchises.
Here is an in-depth look at each team, from how their 2025 season went and what their salary cap and free agent situations look like to their draft capital and glaring needs.
AFC East: Bills | Dolphins | Patriots | Jets
AFC North: Ravens | Bengals | Browns | Steelers
AFC South: Texans | Colts | Jaguars | Titans
AFC West: Broncos | Chiefs | Raiders | Chargers
NFC East: Cowboys | Giants | Eagles | Commanders
NFC North: Bears | Lions | Packers | Vikings
NFC South: Falcons | Panthers | Saints | Buccaneers
NFC West: Cardinals | Rams | 49ers | Seahawks
(Click the team name for the full preview.)
So many things broke right for the Bills. It was an AFC that featured down seasons from the Chiefs, Ravens and Bengals, all of whom missed the playoffs. The Bills were flawed, but never bottomed out like those other AFC contemporaries. Of course, the path wasn’t easy with New England taking over the division, setting the Bills up for a new rivalry that could be active for years to come. And there was the old familiar playoff loss for Buffalo, which figures to remain set up for success as long as Allen is around, but is also running out of chances to break through to a Super Bowl.
The Dolphins will start completely fresh with a new regime as the team fired head coach Mike McDaniel. At first, it seemed as if McDaniel might have done enough over the second half of the season to keep his job, thanks to an improved run game and the team never appearing to quit despite the rough start. Miami now has a chance to pivot from McDaniel’s Tua-centric style of offense, but due to the significant investment in that approach, it might not be a quick or easy path out.
The Jets are hoping that this timeline will mirror the Detroit Lions, where Aaron Glenn came from as defensive coordinator. Detroit went 3-13-1 in Dan Campbell’s first season before a 9-8 record in Year 2. Though unlike the Lions, the Jets will need to find a quarterback. Justin Fields was signed to potentially be that player, but he lasted until only Week 11 before he was replaced. With a ton of draft capital and salary cap space, 2025 could be seen as more of a Year 0 for the Jets and this regime.
Many of the bones that made the Ravens a Super Bowl contender are still in place, headlined by quarterback Lamar Jackson. But Baltimore now has another offseason of figuring out what went wrong. Only this time, it comes much earlier than anticipated with a few more questions that need to be answered — including, for the first time in 18 years, what comes next at head coach after the Ravens fired John Harbaugh.
After another disappointing, injury-ridden year, the Bengals will keep Zac Taylor as head coach and Duke Tobin as de facto general manager and try to figure out how to build out a defense and more offensive structure around their three best players, Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.
This Browns’ season was never going to be about success in 2025. Cleveland seemingly hit on many of the non-quarterback 2025 draft picks — tight end Harold Fannin Jr. and linebacker Carson Schwesinger will be top contenders for Rookie of the Year on each side of the ball, if not outright winners — while the Browns picked up a ton of future draft capital, entering the 2026 draft with two first-round picks. Kevin Stefanski is out as head coach, but general manager Andrew Berry will stay on to oversee what the next era of the Browns might be.
Pittsburgh went from “fire Tomlin” chants inside their own stadium during the season to a thrilling AFC North title win — and then back to them in the playoffs. Signing Aaron Rodgers was a swing that brought some offensive competence, but the Pittsburgh offense still often looked like it was battling itself as it ranked 20th in success rate. By the end of the season, the defense was a top-10 unit by weighted DVOA. Most of this roster, and Mike Tomlin too it feels like, will return for 2026. That gives the Steelers reason enough to push ahead and make at least one more run. Will Rodgers be back too?
The Texans’ familiar issues cropped up early, when they started 0-3 and then 3-5. They didn’t lose a regular-season game after that. Houston’s defense was the biggest reason. It’s a unit full of players who are always in the right place and will play at 110 mph with no brakes. The Texans finished third in defensive EPA per play and second in DVOA. C.J. Stroud finished 12th in EPA per play among quarterbacks while he cut down on sacks and interceptions. (At least until the playoffs.) With a defense that should keep up this level of play, and a quarterback who struggled at times but also made quite a bit out of less-than-ideal circumstances, Houston should be a franchise that sticks around as a threat in the AFC.
It would have been nearly impossible to think the Colts’ 2025 season would end up here after how it started. The Colts were first in point differential through the first 10 weeks of the season, and 28th from Week 12 on. With Daniel Jones injured and signed to only a one-year deal, plus having no first-round pick, the Colts find themselves in a much tougher offseason situation than anyone could have imagined midway through November.
It’s impossible to overstate the success of the Jacksonville Jaguars in the first year of head coach Liam Coen. Thirteen wins and an AFC South title are more than most Jacksonville fans could have imagined, even at some points during this regular season. The Jakobi Meyers trade allowed all the offensive pieces to fall into place while Trevor Lawrence ranked fourth in EPA per play and third in success rate from Week 11 until the end of the regular season. The Jaguars were third in weighted DVOA by the time the season ended. Jacksonville got the most out of its talent and it still feels like there’s more to come. A Year 1 couldn’t be much better and expectations are sky-high for Year 2.
The Titans had hope after drafting QB Cam Ward with the first overall draft pick in 2025, but things never completely came together. Ward flashed, but a lack of talent, especially at receiver, kept Tennessee’s offense from finding its stride. Head coach Brian Callahan was fired after Week 6 with a 1-5 record, 3-14 overall in two seasons with the Titans. Now, Tennessee will search for the next head coach in an attempt to get the most out of Ward and build up a roster that has a young offense while featuring one of the oldest defenses in the league by snap-weighted age.
Under normal circumstances, this season might have been just a small step back for a perennial Super Bowl contender — a chance to regroup and go again. But given Travis Kelce’s age and the late-season ACL tear for Patrick Mahomes, and now grave domestic violence allegations against Rashee Rice, this feels like a bigger moment — the end of an era of this version of the Chiefs. It might not be, but for the first time in the Mahomes era, the Chiefs don’t feel inevitable. This offseason will be the first and an important step in trying to get that feeling back.
By hiring Pete Carroll, the entire idea behind the 2025 Raiders centered on having a well-coached team that raised the floor of the talent on the roster. It was immediately apparent that would not be the case. Now the Raiders have the first overall pick of the 2026 NFL Draft and will be looking for a new head coach with Carroll one-and-done, staring down a complete rebuild the franchise tried to avoid with last offseason’s moves.
The 2025 Chargers’ season was an objective success. But it feels like they left so much on the table.Justin Herbert was incredible throughout the season, but couldn’t get the production to match. The Chargers lost both starting tackles in Joe Alt and Rashawn Slater, while the team had nine offensive line combinations that played at least 50 snaps together. This also felt like a missed opportunity for a defense that was seventh in weighted DVOA by the end of the season. Coordinator Jesse Minter could become a head coach elsewhere, which would force the Chargers into a defensive reset.
As good as Dak Prescott and the offense were, the Cowboys were one of the league’s worst defenses the entire season and ultimately fired coordinator Matt Eberflus. Due to the struggles, Dallas traded for Quinnen Williams at the deadline. Williams is a fantastic player and immediately made an impact for the Cowboys, but it cost a 2026 second-round draft pick, leaving Dallas with no Day 2 picks this year, and a single 2027 first-round pick. The offense wasn’t enough to make up for the defensive deficiencies and the Cowboys missed the playoffs in a season when playoff spots felt more wide open than ever.
For the third straight season, the Giants are looking at a top-six pick in the draft. While some of the young talent was tantalizing, the Giants didn’t have close to a full competitive roster. After going 2-8 this past season, Brian Daboll was fired as head coach. The Giants landed John Harbaugh, the best coaching candidate on the market, and suddenly there’s renewed optimism around East Rutherford.
This was not the world-beating team so many expected to see after last year’s Super Bowl title. How the Eagles played in games was telling. In 2024, they were 24th in points per drive on their opening possession, but improved to fifth over the rest of the game. The 2025 Eagles were sixth in points per drive on their opening possession, but dropped to 25th on all following drives. The talent is still overwhelming. That was the case with a defense that was still second in EPA per play while developing multiple All-Pro-caliber players. But, also as the defense proved, this team needs to figure out how to make that talent work together instead of just relying on the talent to carry itself.
After a season when everything broke right for the Commanders, just about everything went wrong in 2025. Last season, Washington went 7-2 in games decided by seven points or fewer. The Commanders were 0-5 in those games this past season. Washington finished the season in the bottom five of defensive DVOA. Now defensive coordinator Joe Whitt and offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury are not coming back next season. While the Commanders still have the bones of the impressive 2024 team — and a likely healthy Jayden Daniels set to return — this is a franchise that will have to step back and retool a bit earlier than expected.
A 9-8 record is disappointing given where the Lions had been, but this is still a team that finished third in DVOA — it was not a total disaster. Detroit finished third in yards per play on offense, though there were times when the limits of Jared Goff as a quarterback were more exposed than in years past. A shaky offense forced Campbell to take over play-calling in the middle of the season and the Lions will look for a new offensive coordinator in the offseason. The Lions still had the eighth-best point differential in the league, better than NFC playoff teams such as the 49ers, Eagles, Packers, Bears and Panthers. It’s hardly a consolation prize, but this team is still on the right track.
Slowly and surely, injuries chipped away at what made the 2025 Packers special. Tucker Kraft’s torn ACL in Week 8 eliminated the offense’s biggest weapon, a man-beater and yards-after-the-catch monster. Then, a torn ACL for Micah Parsons in Week 15 sapped the hope that Green Bay’s defense could cause enough chaos to lead the way. Those pillar pieces will return in 2026, which should again make the Packers one of the top contenders in the NFL. But after another disappointing early playoff exit, 2026 might need to be the season when the results actually follow. With a potential salary cap crunch and no first-round draft pick, the Packers are going to have to hope the players already put in place can be as good as they need to be in the long term.
Expectations were high for the Vikings coming off a 14-win season in 2024. However, the main goal of 2025 was to get as much information as possible on quarterback J.J. McCarthy. Minnesota disappointed and also did not get a clear evaluation of McCarthy as a quarterback. Despite that, the Vikings still finished above their win total and over .500. That was mostly thanks to a Brian Flores defense that ranked third in DVOA. Flores is a free agent, who could be hired elsewhere as a head coach or defensive coordinator. If most of the pieces stay in place, the Vikings remain a well-structured team that is just average quarterback play away from contending.
The Falcons fired head coach Raheem Morris and general manager Terry Fontenot. The issue with Atlanta over the past two seasons was a clear misevaluation of where the team was and how to build the roster around it. Now, a new head coach in Kevin Stefanski and president of football in Matt Ryan offer a clearer path forward, despite no good solution at quarterback yet and no first-round pick this spring.
An 8-9 record might not feel like a win, but some offensive competence and competitive games would have been the goal heading into the season, and that’s what Carolina got. There are more building blocks in place than there were last season, and this is still one of the youngest teams in the league by snap-weighted age. There might not be a clear answer about the long-term potential of Bryce Young, who finished the regular season 28th in EPA per play, but there have been enough high marks that the team could feel comfortable getting one more season to figure it out. The Panthers sit at a much better spot than they did coming off last year’
Framing the 2025 season as a success for the Saints would be a stretch, but there’s a lot more to like than would meet the eye. First-year head coach Kellen Moore laid a solid foundation for his offense, and the Saints’ defense reached the top half of the league in DVOA under coordinator Brandon Staley. Tyler Shough was 22nd among quarterbacks in EPA per play but was in the top 10 over the final five weeks of the regular season, when the Saints went 4-1.
The Bucs were 6-2 at their Week 9 bye and wound up missing the playoffs. There was a lot of attention given to Baker Mayfield’s dropoff after the bye, but the Bucs went from 13th in EPA per play to only 18th. However, Tampa Bay dropped from sixth in EPA per play on defense before the bye — aided by a strong run defense — to 28th post-bye. The Bucs can hope that better health leads to more success in 2026, but there should be some reflection on what went wrong and what needs to be fixed to keep the franchise moving forward. The Bucs have decided to retain head coach Todd Bowles, though they fired offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard, QB coach Thad Lewis and special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey.
Offensively, things never clicked. Kyler Murray was in and out of the lineup with injuries, which ultimately ended his season early. Now there are big questions about his future with the franchise. There were bright spots on defense, like rookie cornerback Denzel Burke and free-agent signing Josh Sweat, but injuries hamstrung this team all over. Jonathan Gannon was let go as head coach after three seasons, none of them over .500, and a 15-36 record.
The 49ers were decimated by injuries almost immediately and by DVOA, the 49ers played the sixth-hardest schedule in the league. Still, San Francisco won 12 games and played for the No. 1 seed in the NFC during the regular-season finale, then got a road playoff win at the Eagles. This might have been Kyle Shanahan’s best coaching job. The offensive success lifted a defense that had tried its best but couldn’t overcome all the losses, most notably those of Nick Bosa and Fred Warner. Now there’s proof that if things don’t break the right way injury-wise yet again in 2026, the 49ers might still be a playoff team.
