6 Decisions from NFL Offseason That Teams Should Regret Most
Decisions, decisions.
In the NFL, so many of them are outright horrible. Desperation will do that; ditto for hesitation. Tunnel vision is a major cause of terrible decision-making in the league as well.
And often, it doesn't take long to identify the ugly ones.
Three months into the 2024 season, here are six that stand out from the offseason.
Atlanta Falcons Sign Kirk Cousins
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Kirk Cousins hasn't bombed in Atlanta, but it's been more of the same from his time at Minnesota and Washington for an up-and-down 36-year-old who has been part of one playoff win in his 13-year NFL career.
The Falcons are now riding a season-crushing three-game losing streak, during which the quarterback has zero touchdown passes, six interceptions and a sub-60 passer rating.
The worst of it came in an utter mess of a performance in a home loss to the Chargers on Sunday, and now momentum is building in favor of rookie Michael Penix Jr. getting a shot under center.
And that's where the Falcons really went wrong here. If you're going to use a top-10 pick on Penix, why are you spending $180 million on a notoriously inconsistent middle-aged veteran coming off a major injury?
I don't know if Atlanta would be better positioned to make a Super Bowl run right now had it spent that money elsewhere and started Penix from the jump, but it doesn't look like a contender regardless.
The No. 8 pick has been held back while the Falcons grapple with Cousins' $40 million cap hit for 2025 (and a $35 million dead-cap charge if they decide to bail after that campaign).
It's a pickle, and it might have set the franchise back multiple years.
Minnesota Vikings Draft JJ McCarthy at No. 10 Overall
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See what the Minnesota Vikings are doing with a rejuvenated Sam Darnold this season? They're a legit contender, and he is a huge part of that as the NFL's sixth-highest rated qualified passer.
The 2018 No. 3 overall pick ranks in the top three in football when it comes to air yards per pass attempt and on-target rate, and he's come up big in multiple key moments for a 10-2 Vikings team.
Imagine what Darnold would be doing if he were also throwing to Brock Bowers? Or imagine how much more support he might have had if the Vikings had drafted Defensive Rookie of the Year front-runner Jared Verse? Both were on the board when Minnesota selected J.J. McCarthy at No. 10 overall.
In hindsight, with Darnold on the verge of living up to expectations as a late-bloomer, the team would have been better off using that pick on a non-QB contributor or selling it off for veteran pieces.
Dallas Cowboys Extend Dak Prescott and Keep Mike McCarthy
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It looked for a while as though they weren't going to do it.
As time passed this offseason and Prescott remained unsigned beyond the 2025 season, it seemed like the Dallas Cowboys were going to make Dak Prescott put up or shut up in a crossroads season.
And many figured that if the quarterback and head coach Mike McCarthy again failed to come through in key situations, the Cowboys would make drastic moves.
Instead, just prior to the start of the season, they took a 31-year-old signal-caller who has been part of just two career playoff wins and made him the highest-paid player in NFL history.
Since then, though, Prescott has bombed and so have the Cowboys.
Even before going down with a season-ending hamstring injury, the three-time Pro Bowler was a bottom-10-rated passer. And under McCarthy's tutelage, the Cowboys were 3-5 with him as a starter.
They're now 5-7 and well on their way to another lost campaign, and they're likely to start a new hunt for a head coach soon despite the stink associated with consistent failure and a $240 million albatross at quarterback who has failed to start more than 12 games in three of the last five seasons.
Dallas will be severely handcuffed as a result. This franchise is going in the wrong direction...again. And it has nobody to blame but itself.
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New York Giants Pass on QBs with No. 6 Overall Pick
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Sixteen starts after signing a four-year, $160 million contract extension with the Giants, Daniel Jones is no longer on the roster.
That's how much the team erred in handing the 2019 No. 6 overall pick that contract in 2023, despite the fact he had done very little in four years to indicate he was on track to become a franchise signal-caller.
The decision was so bad that even New York's 2024 call to keep the 27-year-old as the starter and essentially neglect the quarterback position beyond that has to make this list.
The Giants had the No. 6 overall pick. They could have navigated the draft board for Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels or Drake Maye—all of whom have impressed as rookies—or they could have taken a swing at Michael Penix Jr. or J.J. McCarthy.
Neither of those guys has made an impact yet, but at least there's hope they will.
Instead, the Giants aren't even back to the drawing board yet, as the league's lowest-scoring offense runs out the clock on a promising yet wasted rookie season from Malik Nabers, the wide receiver they took in that spot in hopes of jump-starting Jones' career.
Oops.
Chicago Bears Keep Head Coach Matt Eberflus
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This one was less obvious in the immediate aftermath. After all, then-head coach Matt Eberflus had just overseen a season in which the Chicago Bears jumped from three wins to seven.
Still, it would have made a lot of sense for the team to start afresh as it embarked on a new era with the first overall pick. The Bears could have brought in Caleb Williams' innovative college coordinator, Kliff Kingsbury, or an intriguing offensive guru such as Ben Johnson or Joe Brady.
But they stuck with Eberflus.
Now, they're 4-8 and amid a miserable losing streak that has included some breathtakingly idiotic moments. Those often link back to coaching, which might explain why few were surprised to see Eberflus lose his job after timeout-gate on Thanksgiving.
Because a new head coach should have every right to assemble his own staff, there's now a good chance Williams will have worked with three different offensive coordinators in his first year as Chicago's franchise QB.
That's far from ideal.
Everything the Jacksonville Jaguars Did
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Head coach Doug Pederson looks like a fired man walking considering the Jacksonville Jaguars have now lost 15 of their last 18 games.
Meanwhile, the team is married long-term to quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who has often come up short despite plenty of talent of his own and within his supporting cast.
The 2021 No. 1 overall pick has thrown just 11 touchdown passes in 10 games, and he's currently the league's seventh-lowest rated passer.
However, it doesn't help that the Jags handed a contract worth $13 million a year to receiver Gabe Davis, who has caught less than half the passes thrown his way during a miserable maiden campaign.
There's no way a team featuring a coach with Pederson's pedigree, Lawrence's talent and supporting cast members such as Davis, Brian Thomas Jr., Christian Kirk, Brandon Scherff and Travis Etienne should be close to this bad, but here we are.
The Jaguars are a train wreck, and because they doubled-down on Lawrence, kept Pederson and made a series of unwise decisions in general in the last offseason, it could take years for them to dig themselves out of this.
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