Every year we see a couple of #NFL teams come out of nowhere and vastly exceed their previous win total. I ranked the eight teams most likely to go from worst to first inside their division!
Tag Archives: Las Vegas Raiders
What does success look like for your favorite NFL team in 2026:
As I said when I birthed this little offseason project last year, what I’m writing about here challenges what the NFL is trying to sell the fanbases of all 32 teams at this point of the calendar – everyone is live to win the upcoming Super Bowl. Probably in no other league do they pursue parity to this extent, and we just watched the Seahawks hoist the Lombardi Trophy at the start of February, despite being tied for 19th in preseason betting odds when toe met leather the first time again. Nonetheless, not all franchises treat each offseason as if they need to maximize how many games they win that season, and therefore it differs what would be labelled a “successful campaign” for them respectively.
So again, while this isn’t a novel concept, and I like to buy into the idea of anything being possible, I do believe that teams across the league are more willing to accept the idea of different stages of roster construction and trying to build a winning program over a longer period of time. Therefore, laying the groundwork and contextualizing where the focus should lie for each of them, as well as what they realistically should be shooting for, is constructive – and a perfect exercise here for the end of July. It may be fair to simply measure success based on how far they make it in 2026, but for others, displaying growth in certain areas to improve their outlook for the future, may be more important, actually.
Let’s go through them by division!
One burning question for each AFC team ahead of the 2026 season:
In the second half of this little mini series, we ask and somewhat try to answer one question on my mind for each AFC team. Once again, this can revolve around certain position groups, schematic details and or any other things that come to mind.
Most improved position groups across the 2026 NFL offseason:
Over the past few months, we’ve extensively talked about the NFL Draft and the players selected by each team – most recently as part of my month-long divisional draft and roster review video series – to go with some thoughts on free agency. At this point of the calendar, we’ve largely reached the end of the roster acquisition period, and it’s time to make some overarching statements.
The purpose of this exercise is to draw conclusions one more time, but from more of a large-scale view, and outline the position groups that were improved the most through all these different avenues, also including trades. This is based on what each roster looked like following week 18, not taking injuries into account, whether those affected who were actually available at that time or those who may linger into this upcoming season.
Once again, the idea here is to talk about these units in a more comprehensive sense, rather than simply pointing at a singular player who might change the feel of those.
This is what I came up with:
AFC West Draft & Roster Review 2026
In the final episode of our eight-part divisional draft & roster review series, once more we’re taking a deep dive into the draft selections and all other roster moves through that prism for four teams – the Broncos, Chiefs, Raiders and Chargers!
NFL teams most likely to go from worst to first in 2025:
With how intent the NFL is on keeping an even playing field, we see a couple of teams turn things around every year. I ranked the eight teams who just finished last inside their division by how most likely to improve to number one!
What does success look like for your favorite NFL team in 2025?
The following conversation goes against what the NFL’s shield is trying to sell the public at the start of every single season – the idea of all 32 teams having a chance to hoist the Lombardi Trophy at the end of it. As much as I love how they strive for parity, conceiving anything but achieving the ultimate goal as a failure would always leave all but one fan base dissatisfied. Generally, I sway away from asking questions like the one in the title, but due to several factors, I thought laying out which factors we should pay attention to and what constitutes a “successful campaign” was particularly interesting this year.
I’m fully aware that this by no means is an innovative concept, but looking back at this past season, I thought the gap between “the rich and the poor” was as large as ever once we got to around Thanksgiving. So I do believe it’s important to offer a frame of context for how we should probably view what these franchises are about to put onto the field once we kick things off. For some teams, simply measuring it by where the journey ends for them in 2025 is fair, yet for others, showing growth in certain areas may be even more crucial for their future outlook.
We’ll go through them all by division here!
Most improved position groups across the 2025 NFL offseason:
We officially put a close to our coverage of the talent acquisition period of the calendar, as we’ve extensively discussed everything heading into and coming out of the NFL Draft, before weaving it into the rest of the roster construction in our month-long video series, where I broke down every single move and its meaning one division at a time.
Now, it’s time to draw conclusions one more time through a league-wide lens and identify the position groups that were most improved through free agency, trades and the draft. This is based on what each roster looked in week 18, not taking injuries into account, whether they affected who was actually able to be on the field at that time or those who may linger into the season.
And one more disclaimer – I always look at this exercise in more of a holistic sense. One singular player may give an entire unit a very different feel, but I try to point out those groups that at least made multiple meaningful acquisitions.
Here’s what I came up with:
AFC West Draft & Roster Review 2025
We’ve reached the final episode of our divisional draft & roster review series for 2025! And we’re closing things out with the AFC West, who just sent three teams to the playoffs and saw the other one make some drastic changes to the key figures of their organization!
One fit for each NFL team in 2025 free agency:
The 2025 NFL offseason is here and before we fully dive into draft content, I wanted to release my annual version of a free agency, where I match all 32 teams with one player about to hit the open market.
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