The 5 Worst NFL Offseason Moves of 2026

Earlier this week, I blogged about my favorite offseason decisions in The 5 Best NFL Offseason Moves of 2026. Unfortunately for this blog, identifying the worst moves proved to be more difficult.

Most offseasons won’t have NFL teams making five obvious terrible decisions. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be NFL GMs. So rather than focusing exclusively on individual trades and signings, some of my entries below examine a collection of related moves that left me scratching my head. Whether it’s questionable roster building, confusing coaching decisions, or a franchise that can’t seem to decide on a direction, these are the five offseason moves—or series of moves—that I disliked the most heading into the 2026 season.

5. Jets Extend Breece Hall

The Jets extended Breece Hall to a three-year, $43.5 million deal with $29 million in guarantees. Breece Hall is a good player, and typically you want to lock good players up, but maybe not a good RB right now if you’re the Jets. During last season the Jets traded both Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams. Maybe the two best players on the team. Which strongly suggested the franchise was entering a full rebuild.

So why are you now extending a RB you probably could have also traded for draft capital? Hall’s name was even being floated around in trade talks around last season’s trade deadline. I just don’t like the sudden pivot of paying a RB big money (5th highest paid RB) instead of trading him when you are so clearly in a rebuild. Especially after trading two cornerstone pieces in Gardner and Williams already.

4. Dallas’ Defensive Line Moves

Let’s start with the Cowboys trading DT Osa Odighizuwa for a third-round pick. After the Cowboys traded for Quinnen Williams, they had an obvious surplus at DT with Kenny Clark and Odighizuwa already on the roster. So this isn’t about trading a DT when you have plenty of good ones. I just think they picked the wrong guy. I think Kenny Clark was the obvious choice to be traded.

Clark is three years older than Odighizuwa, costs more money, and honestly at this stage I don’t think is as good as Odighizuwa. Now of course for these same reasons, you would not have gotten as good of a pick in return for Kenny Clark. But if you’re a team like the Cowboys that thinks they can compete for a Super Bowl, I would have definitely preferred to keep the younger, cheaper, and better player even if it meant getting a slightly later round pick in return. Were they maybe afraid of the optics trading Kenny Clark just a year after they received him in the Micah Parsons trade?

Then the Cowboys went ahead and traded a fourth-round pick to the Packers for Rashan Gary. This by far being the more confusing move of the two in my opinion for one simple reason. Gary was going to be cut by the Packers. So what are you doing sending a mid-round pick for him?

And you can’t even say something like “oh well they probably didn’t wanna risk losing him to another team in free agency.” Because there’s a problem with that argument too. And that’s who cares if you lose out on Gary? He has never had a double digit sack season in his career as a first-round selection, and last season he recorded 0 sacks the last 9 weeks of the season and was essentially a ghost (I’m a Packers fan and watched). And he was playing with Micah Parsons who garners so much attention! Gary’s PFF pass-rush grade was also a 60.7 which ranked 75th among 115 qualified edge defenders. I really don’t get this one. Go after him in free agency and if you miss, whatever.

3. Colts’ Daniel Jones Gamble

The Colts used the transition tag on Daniel Jones this offseason. Which to me was a big mistake. The Colts and Jones eventually agreed to a two-year, $88 million deal with $60 million guaranteed. Not the most money in the world for a QB these days, but still probably more than I anticipated.

But right off the bat, let’s not pretend Daniel Jones was the sole reason this offense got going. In fact, I would say it was the offensive line play and Jonathan Taylor’s 1,963 all-purpose yards and 20 total TDs that was the real engine of this offense. I think that run game helped Daniel Jones way more than Daniel Jones helped the offense as a whole. This deal allows the Colts to move on after one year, making it lower risk than a longer-term commitment. But it will also be especially difficult to evaluate Jones based on just one season following an Achilles tear. And if Jones isn’t the answer, not having a long-term solution at QB would be troubling just one year after trading two first-round picks for Sauce Gardner.

But now to the reason I really disliked the transition tag being applied to Jones: Alec Pierce. Pierce is a very talented deep-threat WR who led the league in yards per catch two seasons in a row. The Colts gave Pierce a four-year, $114 million deal with $60 million guaranteed. These deals forced the Colts to move on from Michael Pittman Jr. as they dealt him to the Steelers. And that’s exactly why I would have franchise tagged Pierce and not Jones.

If you’re the Colts, you have no idea if Pierce is definitely ready to become an all-around solid WR1 instead of just a deep threat. And your other WR in Pittman Jr., who has been good for years, is now gone. So if Pierce does not take that next step to become a true #1, this was simply an overpay. I like Pierce, but this long-term commitment seems a little risky.

Tagging Pierce and seeing how he performed in this role for a year made so much more sense than using the transition tag on Daniel Jones. I feel like we’ve seen Jones’ ceiling, and now he’s coming off a brutal Achilles tear. One of the worst injuries a player can suffer. Would there really have been that much of a market for Daniel Jones with this rough injury where you felt the need to tag him and not Pierce? I think the Colts played this wrong with these two players.

2. Pittsburgh’s Risky Gamble on Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers

As a Packer fan, you won’t find a bigger Rodgers fan than me. But these moves are kind of stunning. Once again this offseason, Pittsburgh let a now 42 year old Aaron Rodgers string them along. Eventually he did come back again, but Rodgers is not what he used to be at all. Just move on Steelers! And last year they traded for DK Metcalf, and now this year they trade for Michael Pittman Jr. I’m not sure I ever saw a team build a WR room before you have the QB in place for the future? Metcalf is signed for four more seasons, and Pittman Jr. is signed for three. Rodgers is gone after this year. If Will Howard isn’t the answer, you gave up assets via trades and money towards a WR room when you don’t have the QB.

I was also very surprised by the Mike McCarthy hiring. Mike Tomlin just left, and I think you just downgraded? Maybe a lateral move at best. But this just felt like a perfect time for Pittsburgh to move on from Rodgers, and maybe take a swing on a young coach with upside. A coach who you can see being there for decades. Instead you went the safe route and hired McCarthy to pair with an aging Rodgers. Pittsburgh had a clear opportunity this offseason to fully reset, but instead I’m not exactly sure what they’re doing. They don’t honestly think this team can win a Super Bowl now, do they?

1. Whatever the Cardinals Are Doing

A few things to look at here. Let’s start with the release of Kyler Murray. This is going to cost the Cardinals roughly $50 million in dead cap space over two seasons. But most will be absorbed this season in 2026. Could you really not find a trade partner for a former number one overall pick who plays the most important position in football? I mean shit even a late pick in return where you still agree to pay most of his salary, since you are doing that in dead cap space now anyway.

Then the draft where they took RB Jeremiyah Love from Notre Dame with pick #3. Love is an awesome player, but I HATE when horrible teams take RBs in the top 5 of drafts.

Take Saquon Barkley for example. He was the most hyped RB prospect of my lifetime, and even he didn’t help the Giants all that much. Who did he help? The rival Eagles that already had a good roster in place when they signed him and thought he could be the final piece. If you are drafting in the top 5, you probably stink and shouldn’t take a RB. But the Cardinals still elected to go with the sexy pick and take a skill position player for their bad roster. I’m sure Love will look awesome though as the Cardinals win 3 games again.

Then the hiring of Mike LaFleur and subsequently Nathaniel Hackett as his offensive coordinator. LaFleur I’ll give some time, but his tenure as offensive coordinator on the Jets was forgettable. But it being the Jets, where Zach Wilson was the QB mostly, is exactly why I won’t judge too hard. Still, you don’t like seeing how bad the Jets offense was in those two years. After his Jets stint he went to the Rams to be their OC since 2023, but we all know that it’s Sean McVay’s making all the final calls for the offense over there.

Now it’s his decision to hire Nathaniel Hackett as offensive coordinator that concerns me more. Hackett was great as OC of the Packers in the early 2020’s. However, some may argue that was a lot more Aaron Rodgers going crazy after the Jordan Love draft than anything Hackett did. In fact, Hackett wasn’t even the play-caller in GB, as that was Mike’s brother/Packer head coach Matt LaFleur. Then Hackett was, we’ll say, not a very good fit as the Broncos head coach in his lone season their in 2022. Then, ironically, Hackett was hired as Jets OC in 2023 to replace his now head coach Mike LaFleur. That stint did not go well either as he was stripped of play-calling duties early in 2024 and was then not with the team after that season.

So whether it’s eating massive dead cap space to move on from Kyler Murray, spending the third overall pick on a running back, or bringing Nathaniel Hackett back into a prominent offensive role, I simply don’t understand the direction Arizona is taking. No team left me more confused this offseason than the Cardinals.

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