The offseason is when NFL teams discuss team needs. Some teams have multiple and long conversations and others tell the media they will make moves and do next to nothing (see 2025 Dallas Cowboys). What does each NFL team need the most, read below.
Arizona Cardinals – QB
Kyler Murray along with another QB to be named later has made a lot of money in the NFL without producing results. He’s played 7 seasons, made approximately $140M – $170M and has 1 playoff appearance, a loss to the Rams where he threw for 137 yards on 34 attempts, 0 TD’s and 2 INT. Jacoby Brissett is a backup QB and definitely not someone you want starting 17 games in a season but the offense looked better when he was the QB.
Atlanta Falcons – Anybody that can stop the run
I am not a believer in oft-injured throughout his playing career Michael Penix, but the biggest issue the Falcons have is stopping the run. Most people will read this and think this is strictly a defensive line issue but it’s also on the linebackers and secondary. The Falcons new President of Football, Matt Ryan stated in his press conference his team will stop the run…we’ll see.
Baltimore Ravens – Offensive line
Lamar Jackson has a massive $74.5 million salary cap hit for next season. If starting center Tyler Linderbaum leaves the Ravens will need to add 2 or 3 offensive lineman and they don’t come cheap in the offseason. Hard to build a Super Bowl contending roster with mass cap hit a QB.
Buffalo Bills – Defense
Most people look at the Bills and automatically assume WR is their big issue. I agree it’s an issue but it’s not their biggest issue. The Bills defense is small and built like they should be playing in the Big-12 conference. Josh Allen is amazing but when the defense gives up 24 to Jacksonville and 33 to Denver in the playoffs, don’t expect to make Super Bowl appearances.
Carolina Panthers – Pass Rushers
The Panthers have a ceiling with Bryce Young at QB but the ceiling is even lower when the defense regularly can’t generate a pass rush or get sacks. The Panthers have been in the bottom 3 in team sacks the last 3 years.
Chicago Bears – Pass Rushers
Now that the Bears are finally watchable thanks to Ben Johnson the weaknesses on this team are clear now. Weaknesses were clouded by bad coaching from Matt Eberflus (more on him later). The Bears need a pass rush to be taken seriously as a Super Bowl contender, they were in the bottom 5 this season in sacks.
Cincinnati Bengals – Someone that knows how to build a team
The Bengals are built as if a fan or fantasy football player constructed the team. Pay the QB and 2 WR, then forget the rest of the roster. When Joe Burrow was drafted I didn’t question his talent, I questioned how successful he could be playing for Bengals. His coach Zac Taylor needs him because he is 4-28-1 without Joe Burrow and Joe Burrow needs a competent personnel person that can protect him with capable offensive lineman and defensive players so he doesn’t have to put up at least 30 points a game to have a chance to win.
Cleveland Browns – Offense
When your team’s season revolves completely around a defensive lineman getting sacks you know the offense is huge issue. Personally I don’t think a team can be taken seriously as a threat to anything with Shedeur Sanders or Dillion Gabriel as the QB but it’s going to take more than this upcoming season to overhaul this offense.
Dallas Cowboys – Defense
Defense meaning a defensive coordinator, defensive players, defensive mindset and everything else defensive. Last season Matt Eberflus was fired as HC of the Chicago Bears, this season Eberflus was fired as defensive coordinator of the Cowboys. Everybody on this team’s defense should be on the table to be moved this offseason except Quinnen Williams.
Denver Broncos – Playmaking WR
Cortland Sutton is not bad but for the offense to take the next step a playmaker at WR is needed. There aren’t any Bijan Robinson’s in this draft so playmaking RB is out and there aren’t any Trey McBride’s in this draft so playmaking TE is out.
Detroit Lions – Offensive coordinator and lineman
When HC Dan Campbell took over offensive play-calling duties from Johnnie Morton this added to their already offensive line issues with Frank Ragnow retiring, Kevin Zeitler jumping to the Tennessee Titans before the start of last season.
Green Bay Packers – Playmaker on offense
It would be defensive coordinator but Green Bay hired Jonathan Gannon. Maybe he can recapture what he had going on with the Philadelphia Eagles. Green Bay is never really bad or extremely good, they are a solid team for the most part year-in and year-out. Most people think Cornerback is Green Bay’s biggest issue but I’m not sold on their offensive playmakers. Josh Jacobs couldn’t get 950 yards rushing and no WR had 725 yards receiving.
Houston Texans – Fix CJ Stroud
This team is only going as far as CJ Stroud takes them, his best season was his rookie year When he is the QB they were a bad red zone team this season, the Texans settled for a lot of FG’s. CJ has 3 playoff wins but in those wins the Texans defense allowed 32 points and the defense scored 32 points (5 TD and a blocked extra point returned for 2 points). Hard to lose in the playoffs when the defense is putting up these numbers.
Indianapolis Colts – Pass rushers
Personally I wouldn’t go all-in with Daniel Jones as my QB but the Colts proved they were all-in with him by trading 2 1st round picks to the NY Jets for Sauce Gardner. If the Colts’ goal is to win a Super Bowl with Daniel Jones they need to build a team like the Seattle Seahawks and it start with the pass rush. The Colts have Laiatu Latu and that’s it. They need to be able to get pressure with their front-4 similar to the Seahawks to have any chance for a playoff run.
Jacksonville Jaguars – Secondary help
The Jaguars front-7 are as good as any team in the NFL, the secondary holds this defense back. Travis Hunter might help, Greg Newsome who the Jaguars got in an October 9th trade didn’t help. More help is needed.
Kansas City Chiefs – Defensive line
One thing that happened with the Chiefs this season we had not seen in years, the defense could not get off the field on 3rd down. The Chiefs ended the season losing 7 of their last 8 games but their 3rd down struggles started the first game of the season against the LA Chargers and continued throughout the season. Chris Jones can still bring it but not every game throughout the game, more like in spurts similar to Travis Kelce. If the Chiefs want things to turn around next season it starts on the defensive line.
Las Vegas Raiders – Everything
Geno Smith is still getting starting QB gigs because of one outlier season, jury is still out on Ashton Jeanty after not surpassing 1,000 rushing yards despite 266 carries, is the offensive line not good or was it bad coaching, WR room is not one to brag about, need a second TE so they don’t have to rely on Brock Bowers so much and the defense should be worse statistically but teams ran the ball a lot in the 2nd half of games because of sizable leads against the Raiders. Let Max Crosby go to a playoff team, get 2 1st round picks and overhaul this roster.
Los Angeles Chargers – Playmaking WR
It’s amazing the Chargers went 11-6 with their WR room. No receiver had more than 790 yards and no RB ran for 650 yards. Giving Justin Herbert and new offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel a playmaking WR could open up a space for possession receivers Ladd McConkey and Keenan Allen.
Los Angeles Rams – Secondary help
The Rams weakness is the secondary, the money on this roster is spent on offense. The Pittsburgh Steelers have the NFL’s most expensive defense, the Rams have the NFL cheapest defense and the secondary got torched this season by quarterbacks like Mac Jones, Sam Darnold and Bryce Young (1st game). They have 2 1st round picks in this draft thanks to the Atlanta Falcons, so they should pick who they perceive is a good corner and safety.
Miami Dolphins – Everything except RB
Similar to the Raiders this team needs everything except a RB. Tua’s current contract is about as ridiculous as Kyler Murray’s, both paid an exorbitant amount of money and haven’t accomplished anything notable in team success. In addition to players, the Dolphins need a culture and a philosophy because the way this team is built year-in year-out it can’t compete in cold weather against teams in their division. This is in addition to possibly going to Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Denver or Kansas City in the playoffs which are cold weather venues.
Minnesota Vikings – QB
I hate to see a good roster go to waste and that’s what JJ McCarthy did with the Vikings this past season. The roster was loaded, all it needed was functional QB play. I would be blown away shocked if JJ McCarthy is the starting QB Week 1. If you routinely sail passes high, away, behind and past Justin Jefferson then you should not start at QB in the NFL. Along with the fact Kevin O’Connell had to simplify the playbook and take away over the middle passes because JJ McCarthy could not read the defense, it was too crowded and he didn’t understand what the LB’s were doing so he was confused where to throw the football.
New England Patriots – Offensive lineman
It’s hard to see the Patriots getting back to the Super Bowl with the offensive line it currently has. In the Super Bowl it was hard for them to stop Kenneth Walker on outside runs so they can also use a player or two that can play sideline to sideline.
New Orleans Saints – WR
The Saints are committed to Tyler Shough so they need to surround him with help on offense.
New York Giants – Offensive line
I am not a believer in Jaxson Dart, he runs too much and takes too many hits but in the event he stays in the pocket he needs to be protected. It also helps to have more time in the pocket to find Malik Nabers.
New York Jets – QB
2 things that are mind-boggling: 1) The Jets were worse or defense this year with a defensive head coach than they were last year 2) They gave Justin Fields a 2-year $40M contract with $30M guaranteed and he didn’t have a market for his services which makes the amount of money he’s getting from the Jets absurd. The college crop of QB’s is not good and the NFL free-agent QB’s aren’t anything to brag about: Jimmy Garoppolo, Trey Lance, Sam Howell, Marcus Mariotta, Russell Wilson and…….Aaron Rodgers. Good luck !
Philadelphia Eagles – Make Jalen Hurts run
No one is talking about the real problem with the Philadelphia Eagles and that is Jalen Hurts does not want to run the ball. When a QB is described as dual-threat, it means he runs better than he passes and that’s the case for Jalen Hurts. I understand Hurts has a huge contract and wants to be healthy enough to get another huge contract but the fact of the matter is this team is loaded with talent and that talent needs to be maximized which means Jalen Hurts needs to run. The Eagles can bring in any offensive coordinator they want, if the offense is designed for Jalen Hurts not to run and sit in the pocket for 30 to 40 times a game, that team isn’t coming close to sniffing another Super Bowl because consistent accurate throws from the pocket all over field is not a strength of Jalen Hurts.
Pittsburgh Steelers – Fix the defense
The Steelers had a defensive coach for 19 seasons, the defense was the most expensive in the NFL the last few years and the defense was not good. This is one reason the Steelers haven’t won a playoff game since January 2017. The last 7 playoff games the Steelers lost 6 of them by double digits so they haven’t been competitive and 3 of the 7 losses were at home. A coaching change definitely needed to be made. After the defense, find a possession receiver because DK is not a #1 receiver and hasn’t had more than 66 catches since 2022.
San Francisco 49ers – Speed at WR & pass rusher
After what happened in the last 2 games against the Seattle Seahawks I would say offensive line but it’s well known Kyle Shanahan does not value offensive lineman and would take a skill player any day of the week over a lineman so I’m going with a speedy WR. The 49ers lack speed on offense. McCaffrey is a step slower, Kittle is getting older, Kendrick Bourne is a good depth receiver but not a starter, Skyy Moore is a much better returner than receiver, Ricky Pearsall has issues staying healthy and Juaun Jennings doesn’t separate consistently which is why 49er QB’s throw more interceptions when targeting him than any other receiver on the team. The 49ers played 17 games regular season games and registered 20 sacks, last in the NFL. The NY Jets were second to last in sacks last season with 26. When Nick Bosa went out with an ACL injury, any QB standing in the pocket had ample time to throw because defensive line pressure was not an issue. Safety is another position of need as well. The offense won’t reach its full potential without a burner who can catch passes on deep routes and open up the middle for the other receivers. The defense will not reach its potential if the only player that can apply pressure on the QB is Nick Bosa.
Seattle Seahawks – Keep the defense intact
The heart and soul of the Seahawks is the defense. It’s young, fast and physical and helped propel the team to a Super Bowl win in a major way. Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker is a free-agent, so is returner Rashid Shaheed, corner Josh Jobe and safety Coby Bryant. There is also talk of giving Jaxon Smith-Njigba big-money. It’s hard to build an elite defense year after year and if the Seahawks pays these guys it means they won’t be able to afford other guys and the casualty most likely will be on defense.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers – anyone that can pressure the QB
After the bye week the Bucs went 2-7. Part of the reason for this is the inability of the defense to stop the pass including RB’s out of the backfield catching passes. The Bucs also had a problem with the pass rush generating pressure on the QB on 3rd down pass attempts. This team needs to look for pass rush help.