12. Las Vegas Raiders
The Las Vegas Raiders made a huge splash in this year’s coaching cycle by calling Pete Carroll out of retirement, and that move alone will land this team in the upper echelon of quality offseasons. On top of adding Carroll to the mix, I love the hire of John Spytek from the Buccaneers as the team’s new GM. The Raiders have smart people in charge of building this roster, and we saw them get to work right away with a shrewd trade to acquire Geno Smith.
Smith is not a game-changer, but he’s going to raise the floor of the offense and give the Raiders a fighting chance in the AFC West. They added Ashton Jeanty and for the second straight year, might have drafted the top offensive weapon in the class.
Defensively, this team is an unfinished product. They can only hope to hit on a number of signings they made this offseason, but they are going to need future draft classes to really help in that regard.
11. Cincinnati Bengals
Thanks to the fact that they got Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase locked up on long-term deals, the Bengals have enjoyed one of the top offseasons of any team in the league. Some may disagree with the roster building strategy there, but you can’t put a price on keeping your franchise QB happy. And the Bengals opened up the checkbooks for Mike Gesicki as well.
Trey Hendrickson is still wondering when his number is going to be called, but that can’t take away from what the Bengals have built offensively.
Making Lou Anarumo the scapegoat for the defense and hiring Al Golden was a risky move for the Bengals, but I like what they’ve been doing to upgrade personnel on that side of the ball with first-round pick Shemar Stewart coming in and bringing the heat off the edge. The additions of veteran DL TJ Slaton and second-round pick Demetrius Knight were really underrated.