For the majority of the NFL, the 2025 offseason is here. The NFL is always a league full of change and this year will be no exception. In fact, you can expect the usual amount of craziness with player movement if not even more so than usual.
In our newest NFL Power Rankings, we're going to be taking a look at teams who are unfortunately in the worst situations heading into the offseason. This is not a death sentence for these teams in 2025, but a stark reality of the hard roads they face to get back to prominence.
We're taking a look at the teams who are in the worst spots as far as salary cap space, number of roster needs, the potential for cap casualties and/or necessary trades, as well as teams who just simply lack direction right now.
NFL Power Rankings: 10 teams in rough situations entering 2025 offseason
10. Miami Dolphins
Even though the Miami Dolphins were apparently able to patch things up with wide receiver Tyreek Hill, it feels like this team's competitive status in the AFC East is hanging on by a thread.
And in all honesty, the health of Tua Tagovailoa has this team's playoff hopes hanging by a thread no matter what time of year it is. The Dolphins need to enter the 2025 offseason with the mindset that they are going to need another quarterback for a hefty stretch of games this coming year, and prospective free agents are going to know that...
...and charge a premium.
The Dolphins are $12 million in the hole when it comes to their cap space and their best defensive players are coming off of serious injuries. One of their best defensive players -- Jevon Holland -- is a free agent.
9. New Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints enter the 2025 offseason in familiar territory: They are in salary cap hell. Not just purgatory...The Saints are typically one of the NFL's worst when it comes to needing to find ways to dig themselves out of a giant salary cap hole, so this is nothing new for GM Mickey Loomis.
But being over $52 million in the red is not exactly the best recruiting tool when it comes to needing a new head coach. And the Saints are struggling with that as well. It's not a bad gig by any means, but for a team needing to dig themselves out of a salary cap hole, to already have an established veteran QB under contract is not exactly the way to attract the top head coach candidates either.
New Orleans is just not an attractive spot other than the fact that they might be able to compete in the NFC South in the current window we're in. But the assets they have available and the current state of the roster are not ideal.
8. Atlanta Falcons
The Atlanta Falcons have a handful of problems facing them in the 2025 offseason. Obviously, they've got to find a way out of Kirk Cousins' contract, and there is no easy way to do that. This team is moving forward with Michael Penix Jr. but the Falcons obviously had to compromise other areas of the roster last offseason in order to get some direction at quarterback.
General manager Terry Fontenot has to get out of a near-$10 million hole in the salary cap to open the offseason and it's going to require some creativity.
A team like the Falcons would greatly benefit from being able to throw a bunch of cash at top-tier free agents for their defense but they are going to have to rely almost totally on the 2025 NFL Draft. And they are smack in the middle of the order at 15 overall.
7. New York Giants
It's never an enviable situation for a team that just cut its former 1st-round franchise quarterback in the middle of the season.
Especially after these guys were put on blast a little bit by HBO's Hard Knocks, you can't help but feel like GM Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll are firmly on the hot seat entering the 2025 offseason. That pressure could produce diamonds or it could force those guys out of town as early as 2026.
The Giants had a good rookie class in 2024 but they need a quarterback and it's hard to see exactly how that's going to work out. It's not out of the realm of possibility that they could get one of the top 2-3 guys on their board at that position, but is the 2nd or 3rd option going to be enough to prevent the Giants from another new regime in 2026 facing the same problems Schoen and Daboll faced?
6. Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys once again have a number of prominent free agents heading into the 2025 offseason, including future Hall of Fame guard Zack Martin and longtime Cowboys pass rusher DeMarcus Lawrence.
Dallas has contract situations with guys like Micah Parsons looming as well as a head coach search underway after letting Mike McCarthy walk.
So, with the Eagles and Commanders heading to the NFC Championship, the Cowboys have a big-money contract QB coming off of a serious injury and a number of significant roster holes. They are slightly in the red on the salary cap and obviously are going to have to be calculated this offseason. The 2025 NFL Draft looms large for this team, as well as whatever head coach hire they end up making.
5. Pittsburgh Steelers
Just how down bad are the Pittsburgh Steelers right now? Well, it's bad enough that multiple NFL teams have gotten up the courage to call and ask if Mike Tomlin is available in a trade.
It doesn't sound like that's the case, but you can see why teams would call. The Steelers ended the season on a brutal, ugly losing streak. Quarterback Russell Wilson -- a pending free agent -- played horribly down the stretch. There are rumors that George Pickens wants out. Najee Harris is a free agent.
Are things going to finally unravel in Pittsburgh? Is Mike Tomlin going to be a guaranteed above .500 season again in 2025? How much longer before that's not enough?
4. Las Vegas Raiders
The Las Vegas Raiders clearly missed out on Bill Belichick and Ben Johnson already in the head coach department, and you can't help but wonder what head coach candidate is really going to want this gig after Antonio Pierce was canned.
The Raiders don't have a franchise quarterback. They just fired GM Tom Telesco who had a strong draft class in 2024. They are playing in a division where everyone else has a QB right now.
The cupboard is not bare in Las Vegas and someone will want that job, but this feels like a long-term rebuilding project rather than a "see you in the playoffs in two years" kind of deal.
3. Tennessee Titans
After firing general manager Ran Carthon, the Tennessee Titans decided they wanted a piece of the Kansas City Chiefs and hired Mike Borgonzi to assemble their roster.
And Ran Carthon did a number on this team before his dismissal. Carthon approached the 2024 offseason as though the Titans were a couple of veteran pieces away from contending for the division, but his vision didn't come to fruition. You can't help but wonder if that was solely due to quarterback woes.
The Titans have a lot of question marks this offseason all over their roster, but the biggest one is quarterback. And they have a major question mark at QB with the #1 overall pick and it doesn't feel like there is a truly "obvious" candidate for that spot. Borgonzi is going to come in and put his stamp on the roster immediately.
This is one of the older teams in the NFL with an average age of over 26 as of the 2024 season.
2. New York Jets
It's hard to believe there is a team in a worse spot than the New York Jets right now, but -- spoiler alert -- congrats to the Browns on taking the cake.
The Jets have an Aaron Rodgers-sized problem this offseason and it isn't limited to AR12, either. The Jets don't have a GM. They don't have a head coach (at the time of this writing), although it seems as though Aaron Glenn could be close to taking the gig.
I can't imagine many of the candidates the Jets interviewed wanted to proceed forward with Aaron Rodgers, unless it was maybe just for a year. This team underachieved terribly this past season when everyone thought they were such a great roster. Now, it's all about to potentially come falling apart.
1. Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns have the 2nd-worst cap situation in the NFL at over $30 million in the hole. They have Deshaun Watson under a massive contract. Their NFL Draft capital has been gutted the last handful of years.
Myles Garrett could be on his way out in 2025 if he asks for a trade. The offensive line needs new pieces. The defense could be losing Greg Newsome in 2025 as well. They already have the 2nd-most dead money on the roster in 2025. Nick Chubb is a free agent and didn't look like himself in 2024 after injury in 2023.
This Browns team needs to be gutted but they don't have a way out of a number of deals. On top of it all, Watson re-tore his Achilles after already having surgery on it, so his 2025 season is over before it even gets going.
What is this team going to do? They just re-signed both GM Andrew Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski last offseason. The Browns are in an ugly spot heading into 2025.