26. Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins have had a season to forget. There were signs of life there a couple of weeks ago, but a loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on primetime ended their playoff hopes, and it also forced the Dolphins to make the huge decision to bench Tua Tagovailoa.
The Dolphins are now likely going to move on from their first-round QB at some point this offseason, and there probably is no guarantee that Tagovailoa is going to be starting somewhere in the 2026 NFL Season.
Going forward, the Dolphins are going to have to make some interesting decisions, as the QB of the future is clearly not on the roster, but moving on from Tagovailoa is not going to be an easy financial decision. The teams that are in this situation might follow the path that the Denver Broncos followed, which was to absorb the dead cap hit and move on without trying to force it to work.
Another wrinkle here, though, is that Miami’s roster is relatively weak overall, so this could be a multi-year rebuilding process for the Dolphins, unfortunately.
25. Washington Commanders
I feel like I use the phrase ‘if nothing else’ multiple times in our power rankings, but, if nothing else, the Washington Commanders kept it close against the Philadelphia Eagles for the first half of the game, but this season has been over for weeks now.
Where do we begin? Well, I’ll admit that I was way too high on this roster coming into the season - it was the oldest in the NFL and really wasn’t that great. Then, the injuries began, and that has included starting QB Jayden Daniels, who suffered multiple notable injuries in 2025.
All of a sudden, Washington has gone from being within a game of the Super Bowl in 2024 to one of the worst teams in the league in 2025. In the offseason, GM Adam Peters has to hit on some draft picks and just rework this roster to be younger and faster.
Daniels also suffering those injuries this year is not ideal, so he may have to learn how to protect himself a bit more. The Commanders should see a pretty high draft pick in the 2026 NFL Draft and could get a decent player there. Overall, Washington is an underwhelming, disappointing team this year and have probably already turned the page to 2026.