Ranking the 6 Worst Decisions of the 2025 NFL Offseason

There are still some veteran free agents looking for new homes in 2025, but the player acquisition portion of the NFL offseason is mostly over. We have a pretty good idea of what the league’s teams will look like this year—and which squads did the best job of improving.

Many of the moves made this offseason (in free agency, the draft or even via trade) have been hailed by pundits, whether it’s the New York Jets signing quarterback Justin Fields on the (relative) cheap, the Las Vegas Raiders trading for quarterback Geno Smith and drafting Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty or the Jacksonville Jaguars aggressively moving up for the NFL unicorn that is Travis Hunter.

Applause and attaboys all around.

However, some moves didn’t go over as well. Maybe it was a draft pick spent on a quarterback who can’t ride the rollercoasters at Cedar Point. Signing a tackle who is as much matador as offensive lineman. Or stubbornly pursuing a signal-caller more likely to turn a team into a circus than a contender.

No, there are moves that were just, well, bad.

And here’s the six worst of the lot.

6. The Kansas City Chiefs Signing OT Jaylon Moore

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If you watched Patrick Mahomes take a beating in Super Bowl LIX, then you had to know the offensive line would be a priority in the offseason. But a sense of urgency can lead even the best NFL general managers to make questionable decisions—like handing $15 million a season to a tackle who has made all of 12 starts over four seasons.

For his part, while speaking to reporters, Chiefs general manager Brett Veach said that he thinks Jaylon Moore will be an asset on the offensive line in Kansas City.

"We want to get some stability there at the left tackle position. He {Moore} is a guy that, I think, the only downside was just the lack of starts during his career. Now, when you consider the fact that he played behind a first ballot Hall of Fame player in Trent Williams, you can see why," Veach said. He's athletic. He's a smart kid. We did a lot of work on him during the pre-draft process years ago, always had a liking, taking liking to the kid, thought he had a game that translates and credit to him that when he had a chance to go out there and log six, seven starts last year, he did a really good job."

However, ESPN’s Seth Walder isn’t so sure.

“There are spots in roster-building where taking risks makes sense,” he wrote. “Patrick Mahomes' left tackle is not one of them. Moore is somewhat of an unknown, but what we do know isn't pretty. His 83% career pass block win rate would have ranked 63rd out of 67 tackle qualifiers last season.”

Even the Chiefs appear to have their doubts—Kansas City used their first pick in this year’s draft on another tackle in Ohio State’s Josh Simmons.

5. Cleveland Browns Drafting QB Dillon Gabriel in Round 3

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The Cleveland Browns entered the 2025 draft with arguably the weakest quarterback room in the league.

Now, after burning a third-round pick on Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel before halting Shedeur Sanders’ draft-day slide in Round 5, the Browns have—arguably the weakest quarterback room in the league.

The Sanders pick made sense—he was considered a first-round talent by many draftniks and cost the Browns essentially nothing. But the Sanders pick made taking Gabriel on Day 2 look that much worse.

Gabriel told reporters from rookie minicamp that he intends to show that he has the ability to start in the NFL.

"I only know one way to prepare," Gabriel said. "I only know one way to work, and that is as the starter. I've played a bunch of ball and have a lot of experience, so I'm going to use that to my advantage. I think every day I approach is like I'm going to go get that rep, and I live it like that."

ESPN’s Ben Solak just doesn’t see it.

“It's tough for me to find a rosy future for Gabriel, who lacks the size necessary to make all the throws on an NFL field,” he said. “He also doesn't have the compensatory arm talent and movement skills that shorter quarterbacks like Kyler Murray and Russell Wilson have. I struggle to find a world where Gabriel really makes waves in that Browns QB room, even if Sanders wasn't there.”

Gabriel’s experienced and he was productive in multiple offenses in college. But he’s also 5’11” on his tippy-toes, throws left-handed, doesn’t have a big arm and was almost universally regarded as a Day 3 prospect.

Gabriel’s ceiling is all but certainly a competent backup. And a Browns team with needs galore on both sides of the ball can’t afford to waste top 100 picks like this.

4. New Orleans Saints Re-Signing EDGE Chase Young

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It has been a rough offseason for the New Orleans Saints. After quarterback Derek Carr’s retirement, the team’s likely Week 1 starter under center is a 25-year-old rookie in Tyler Shough. Entering free agency, the Saints had the least cap space in the league.

It’s that latter reality that makes the three-year, $51 million contract the team gave edge-rusher Chase Young all the more baffling.

There was a time when $17 million a season might have seemed a bargain for Young. But since taking home Defensive Rookie of the Year honors in 2020, Young has underwhelmed, in part due to injuries.

Young joined the Saints on a one-year deal in 2024, and as Cale Clinton, Jeff Howe and David DeChant wrote for the Athletic, the results were…OK?

“Though he did not start, Young’s stats portrayed a quality—albeit unlucky—top-end pass rusher,” they said. “He finished seventh among qualified defensive linemen with a 16.2 percent pressure rate, tied for ninth in total pressures (66) and 16th in quarterback hits (21) while recording just 5.5 sacks. The film told a more complicated story. Young feasted on backup offensive tackles, and many of his pressures came late in the play or as he let the QB break contain. He was also underwhelming as a run defender (perhaps the reason he was not a starter), too often playing passively or lagging in pursuit.”

Young’s a decent player, and he’s still just 26. But he hasn’t been a difference-maker since his rookie season, yet the Saints are paying him like one.

Given their precarious cap situation and the overall state of the franchise, that was a bad move by a team that has made their share of those (and then some) of late.

3. The Pittsburgh Steelers Pursuit of QB Aaron Rodgers

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Yep. That’s right. We’re bagging on a move that technically hasn’t happened yet.

The Pittsburgh Steelers have been waiting on Aaron Rodgers to make a decision about playing in 2025 for weeks now. Folks are attempting to discern Rodgers’ plans from any kernel of information, with the latest being Rodgers joining a Pittsburgh-area golf club.

But at this point, former New York Giants vice president of player personnel Marc Ross told Nate Davis of USA Today that Rodgers has officially become more grief than he’s worth—before ever joining the team.

“I don’t get it. Old guys, they don’t get better. They get worse. And all the headaches (Rodgers) brings?” Ross said. “Now Pittsburgh, you’re just signing him for his name. You’re not even signing him for anything else. He gives you no chance to win, he gives you no chance to compete against the good teams. And he’s gonna be a pain in the a**--you’re dealing with drama right now with the guy, and he’s not even on your team. It just baffles me. It really absolutely baffles me.”

Amen to that.

Let’s get real. Rodgers signing in Pittsburgh doesn’t make the Steelers a Super Bowl contender. Not based on what we’ve seen from him the past few years. Sure, he may extend Mike Tomlin’s streak of non-losing seasons, but is that the goal now? Nine or 10 wins and (maybe) another early playoff exit?

Rodgers also brings a sideshow that would make P.T. Barnum blush. What happens when the Steelers are 1-3 and Rodgers goes on The Pat McAfee Show to blame everyone but himself?

The Steelers are effectively stuck now—the team tip-toed around the quarterback position this offseason (wonder why?), and at this point the Plan B is either Mason Rudolph or Day 3 rookie Will Howard.

Rodgers will probably sign with the Steelers soon.

And it will definitely be a fiasco.

2. Atlanta Falcons Trading Up for EDGE James Pearce Jr.

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Before we go any farther here, an important note—this doesn’t have anything to do with edge-rusher James Pearce Jr. as a player. The 6’5” 245-pounder is wildly athletic and has a high potential ceiling in the NFL. After finishing 31st in the league in sacks for the second time in three years, Falcons head coach Raheem Morris told reporters that the team entered the 2025 draft hell-bent on improving the pass rush.

“I get beat up all year about not getting sacks, and that’s got to change,” Morris said. “The only way you can change that is to change that. That was part of our process, very intentional, going out and trying to fix the edge room.”

The problem is the price Atlanta paid to draft a player who was reportedly off multiple teams’ draft boards entirely.

The Falcons gave up their 2026 first-rounder to move back into Round 1 and select Pearce—after already using their own first-rounder on Georgia EDGE Jalon Walker. This happened just one pick after the Giants pulled off a similar move but only surrendered a pair of Day 2 picks.

Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot said the team didn’t lose a first-rounder. They just moved next year’s pick up a season.

"You always need multiple pressure players. If we were going into next year, we were hoping that a Jalon Walker would be there next year, a James Pearce would be there next year, to take another pressure player," Smith said. "Well, this year, we're sitting there, and we've got an opportunity."

But it can also be argued the Falcons overpaid significantly for a young player who is nowhere near a sure thing.

1. Titans Signing OT Dan Moore Jr.

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It happens every year.

Each and every offseason, NFL teams with a need along the offensive line overpay for middling talents. Quality offensive linemen don’t ever get to the open market, so the blockers who do are flawed. But teams need help up front and have cash to burn, so they hand out big contracts anyway. We have already seen an example of it in this piece with Jaylon Moore in Kansas City.

But if what the Chiefs did was ill-advised, than the Tennessee Titans giving $82 million to Dan Moore was just—wow.

Moore heard the criticisms of the contract. And per Jim Wyatt of the team’s website, he intends to prove those naysayers wrong in 2025.

"Obviously I want to exceed expectations," Moore said. "But it's not only about proving the team right, it's about proving myself right. I feel like my expectations will always be higher than anyone else's are for me. I feel like by meeting my expectations, I'll exceed the team's expectations. So, not only do I want to prove them right, I want to prove them damn right, where (they're thinking), 'We got our guy. He didn't just do what we needed him to do, he did that and more.' That is the consensus I want in the organization."

The problem is that Moore has shown nothing to indicate over four years in the league that he can be a $20 million tackle. Per Pro Football Focus, in 1,111 snaps a year ago, Moore surrendered a dozen sacks. The year before that, he allowed eight.

Moore is being paid like a top-10 tackle.

He’s nowhere close to that good.