Let’s just say it hasn’t taken long for NFL teams to quickly experience buyer’s remorse after making a blockbuster offseason move that was supposed to improve their postseason hopes.
With that said, let’s dive into 10 offseason moves from 2024 that NFL teams are already regretting.
Which offseason moves from these NFL teams ended up in a disaster?
Falcons Sign Kirk Cousins For $180 Million
There’s quite a bit to unpack here about Kirk Cousins and the Atlanta Falcons’ offseason quarterback fiasco.
Here’s the deal: If you pay a quarterback $180 million, including $100 million guaranteed, you COMMIT to him long-term. AND if you use a first-round pick — especially a top-10 selection — on a quarterback? You make him your long-term guy.
You can’t have both. You don’t pay someone nine figures and use a No. 8 selection on a signal-caller. But don’t tell that to the Falcons.
A month after winning the Cousins free agent sweepstakes, they used the No. 8 pick on Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. At the time, everyone was baffled by the Penix Jr. pick.
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But hindsight tells us that the Penix Jr. pick may not be so bad after all because Kirk Cousins ain’t it in Atlanta.
The Falcons won six of their first nine games and already looked poised to run away with the NFC South. Captain Kirk had 17 touchdowns over those nine games. And then the collapse was on.
After the Dallas win, the Falcons lost three straight games with Cousins throwing zero touchdowns and six interceptions — including a four-pick outing against the Los Angeles Chargers.
So, in other words, Atlanta is paying $180 million for an average-to-below-average version of an NFL quarterback. Cousins will be 37 next year, but we’re not convinced he’ll still be their full-time starter in 2025.
So imagine this: What if Atlanta just never paid Cousins, drafted Penix Jr., and made him the starter right away? Hey, they would’ve saved themselves at least $100 million…
Trevor Lawrence Gets $275 Million Extension
The Jacksonville Jaguars had more than enough time to ponder their options with Trevor Lawrence, who was only entering the fourth season of his five-year rookie deal.
Extending T-Law before 2025 was risky, considering his up-and-down career performances: A forgettable rookie year, a cold-then-hot sophomore year, followed by a hot-then-cold 2023 season.
Last season’s second-half collapse should have made 2024 a “prove it” year for Lawrence. But the Jaguars inexplicably gave their quarterback a five-year contract extension worth $275 million — including $200 million guaranteed.
That was awfully generous for a guy who had yet to throw for 4,200 yards or 30 touchdowns in a single season. Fast forward to now, and it already looks like it could go down as the biggest mistake in Jaguars’ history.
Before suffering a concussion that ended his 2024 season early, Lawrence had a stat line quite similar to his nightmare rookie year: A 2-and-10 record, a 60.6 completion percentage, and 11 touchdowns against seven interceptions.
T-Law averaged a pedestrian 204.5 passing yards per game — even fewer than his 2021 average of 214.2.
Did we mention that Lawrence’s $275 million deal doesn’t even kick in until 2026? Good luck with that, Jags nation.
Panthers Trade Brian Burns To Giants
The Carolina Panthers didn’t learn their lessons with the Christian McCaffrey and DJ Moore trades. That is, if you have a franchise superstar young and in his prime — you keep him.
But the Panthers had no interest in paying superstar edge rusher Brian Burns long-term. In the offseason, they dealt the team MVP to the New York Giants for the surprisingly low price of 2024 second and 2025 fifth-round picks, plus a swap of 2024 NFL fifth-rounders.
Burns continues to produce like a superstar, as expected, for the Giants. The Panthers rank near the very bottom in team sacks, with zero game-changing players on the defensive side of the ball.
Probably a bad time to mention that in 2022, the Panthers rejected the Los Angeles Rams’ offer of two first-round picks PLUS a second-rounder for Burns. Gosh, how do you Carolina fans do it?
Las Vegas Raiders Sign Gardner Minshew II
After a decent season filling in for an injured Anthony Richardson in Indianapolis, Minshew signed a two-year deal with the Las Vegas Raiders worth $25 million.
After signing Minshew, it was assumed that the Raiders would target a quarterback in the first round of the draft. Michael Penix Jr., Bo Nix, and JJ McCarthy were among the candidates Vegas could have traded up for.
But nope. They just wanted Minshew to compete with sophomore Aidan O’Connell for the starting QB job. As if the Raiders were going to become contenders with Minshew or AOC going up against Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert, and Mr. Nix himself in the AFC West…
Minshew was, to be blunt, downright awful before suffering a collarbone fracture that ended his season. The mustache lost seven of nine starts and threw for nine touchdowns against 10 interceptions — posting a career-low passer rating of 81.0.
So the Raiders wasted excellent seasons from Maxx Crosby and Brock Bowers by AGAIN neglecting the QB position. Imagine if they chose a quarterback in round one and offered fans some hope for the future?
The 2025 QB draft class is weak outside of Shedeur Sanders and Carson Beck. So if the Raiders don’t get one of those guys, woof. Good luck. Another year of Minshew and O’Connell? Raiders fans can only hope not.
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Jets Draft Olu Fashanu
The Jets quickly went to work in reshaping their offensive line, landing three quality veterans in Morgan Moses, John Simpson and future Hall of Famer Tyron Smith.
Again, we know hindsight is 20/20, but taking a boom-or-bust offensive tackle prospect in Olu Fashanu when the Jets had enough linemen looks like a mistake in hindsight. Especially when we see the other mega studs the Jets passed on.
Fashanu has mostly been disappointed in a rotational role during a disastrous Jets season. Now imagine if they took someone like Brock Bowers, who’s having a historic rookie year for the Raiders? Or another stud pass-rusher like Jared Verse to complement Quinen Williams? Or Jags star wideout Brian Thomas Jr.?
And if the Jets had someone like Bowers or Thomas, they wouldn’t have sunk further by making the hopeless trade for Davante Adams. And even if they ditch Aaron Rodgers after this season, at least the next QB would have a receiving tandem of Garrett Wilson and either Bowers or Thomas to work around.
Ah well, at least this NFL team looked decent for a couple of weeks early in the season?
Titans Make Win-Now Trade For L’Jarius Sneed
The cap-strapped Kansas City Chiefs were unable to pay Sneed the money he wanted with his rookie deal up. So the back-to-back Super Bowl champions traded their star cornerback to the Tennessee Titans for a 2025 third-round pick and a swap of 2024 seventh-rounders.
Tennessee then signed Sneed to a four-year contract extension worth $76.4 million. Suffice it to say that it didn’t take long for this NFL team to feel buyer’s remorse.
Sneed played five games before suffering a quad injury that forced him to miss most of the year. Before the injury, Sneed had a woeful 36.3 Pro Football Focus grade that ranked 203rd out of 212 cornerbacks. Think about that for a minute.
According to Pro Football Reference, he also allowed a 91.8 passer rating when targeted. And Sneed’s getting nearly $20 million a year for that kind of production?
Also, Tennessee might actually finish with the best pass defense in football. And that’s without Sneed for most of the season. In other words, they’re actually a much better unit when he’s not on the field.
Remind us why they gave up a valuable third-round pick for him again?
Jaguars Hand Arik Armstead $43.5 Million
Looking to improve their front seven, the Jaguars moved quickly to sign the ex-San Francisco 49ers star following his surprise release from the defending NFC champs.
Armstead signed a three-year deal with the Jags worth $43.5 million. The move was interesting, to say the least, since Jacksonville already had a loaded pass rush led by Travon Walker, Josh Hines-Allen, and Foyesade Oluokun.
Sure enough, Armstead has hardly contributed on one of football’s worst defensive units. Armstead had one sack through his first 12 games and was moved to a rotational role because of his lackluster production.
Armstead has played less than half of Jacksonville’s snaps on defense this season. Remind us why exactly they gave him money when the o-line and secondary were bigger needs?
Jets Swing A Blockbuster Trade For Haason Reddick
After losing star edge rusher Bryce Huff to the Philadelphia Eagles in free agency, the Jets thought they were making up for it by acquiring the two-time Pro Bowler in a massive trade.
New York sent a conditional 2026 third-round pick to Philly for Reddick, who racked up 50.5 sacks over the previous four years. The perfect win-now move in the Aaron Rodgers competitive window, right?
If only. Reddick, entering a contract season, wanted a new deal from the Jets. They refused to give it to him. It was basically a staredown contest to see who would blink first. Reddick finally gave in, agreed to a new deal, and debuted in Week 8 against the New England Patriots.
Of course, Reddick has done next to nothing to help the Jets’ defense amid a disastrous season. And to think this NFL team gave up a valuable third-round pick to get half a season out of a guy who was supposed to help them compete for a Super Bowl??
YIKES!!!
Cincinnati Bengals Draft Amarius Mims In Round One
Entering the 2024 NFL Draft, the Bengals had two rock-solid veteran offensive tackles in Orlando Brown Jr. and Trent Brown. So ideally, an NFL team in win-now mode would draft a player who would produce right away.
Now, obviously, there was no way of predicting Trent Brown’s season-ending knee injury, but the point stands. Why did Cincy take another risky prospect when they had other needs, particularly on defense and wide receiver, with Tee Higgins on his way out?
So anyway, Mims has been just okay as one of Cincy’s bookends. But since this list allows us to use the benefit of hindsight, it’s safe to say that the Bengals would have gone elsewhere with this pick.
Their pathetic defense is wasting MVP-like years from Joe Burrow AND Ja’Marr Chase. So imagine if they took a stud pass-usher like Jared Verse to help Trey Hendrickson? Or an elite shutdown corner like Quinyon Mitchell or Cooper DeJean?
OR…what if they took Brian Thomas Jr. as Higgins’ eventual replacement? Xavier Worthy, Keon Coleman, or Ladd McConkey would have been better picks than Mims, too. Just sayin…
Everything The Dallas Cowboys Did
Why specify one of Jerry Jones’ many disastrous moves when we can fit it all into one?
After the Cowboys’ Wild Card round los to the Green Bay Packers, Jones stated his team would have an “all-in” approach to the offseason. That promised aged worse than milk, and we kinda hope ESPN does a “30 for 30” on it one day…
So, where do we start? Jones didn’t make a single blockbuster trade or free agent signing in the offseason. After losing star running back Tony Pollard in free agency, his master plan was to bring back a fading Ezekiel Elliott. Yippee…
And remember when Jerry said the Cowboys didn’t sign Derrick Henry because they couldn’t afford it? Who said they didn’t have the resources? And Henry WANTED to go to Dallas.
Jones talked about needing to save cap space to extend CeeDee Lamb and Dak Prescott. Lamb was signed at the end of August, and Dak signed his deal before the Week 1 opener.
Sure enough, Prescott’s $240 million extension looks like a mess. Not sure about you, but something tells us Prescott would have chosen to leave in 2025 with free agency if he hadn’t put the pen to paper.
Even with Dallas’ season on the ropes leading up to the trade deadline, Jerry didn’t make a single trade. For whatever reason, he thinks an NFL team with a losing record is enough to win a Super Bowl? Make it make sense.
Jones misread the market and had to pay Lamb and Prescott A LOT MORE compared to if he got the deals done in March. But hey, at least he showed loyalty to Zeke by bringing him back for another year.
We look forward to hearing Jones’ next lame excuse about why he couldn’t go “all-in.” Never a dull moment with this guy.
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