Ranking top 10 offseason moves by impact they’ll have in 2025: Can Aaron Rodgers lead Steelers to playoff win?

The offseason is nearly over as we’re on the doorstep of training camps opening up across the NFL. Soon enough, we’ll be in the thick of the preseason, and the 2025 regular season will be here before we know it. Then it’s a mad dash that will only end when we get to Santa Clara, California, for Super Bowl LX. 

Of course, loads will happen between now and then that we won’t see coming. However, there are some moves that went down this offseason that we know will have some sort of impact on the regular season. And that’s what we’ll be identifying for our exercise today. 

Below, we’re going to scan through all of the major moves that happened throughout the offseason and rank them on how they may impact the upcoming year. These moves will range from simple player acquisition, players departing one organization for another, key stars being retained, a team choosing to keep one player over another, and coaching hires. 

Even before trading away Ramsey and Smith to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Miami Dolphins were looked at as a team possibly facing a downturn in 2025. Their win total for the year is hovering around 8.5 and 7.5 with the action juiced to the Under on 8.5, meaning they are expected to be an under .500 club yet again in 2025. This trade only made Miami worse, and it came at a point in the offseason when there were no viable replacements to bring in. 

While the situation with Ramsey devolved to a point of no return, the Dolphins didn’t exactly prepare for a departure that most folks saw coming miles away. Ramsey may have had a down year by his standards in 2024, but he still allowed just an 83.2 passer rating when targeted by opposing quarterbacks and broke up 11 passes. In his absence, the Dolphins are currently set to lean on a cornerback room headlined by Storm Duck (2024 undrafted free agent), Cam Smith (played six games in 2024 due to injury), Artie Burns (played four games in 2024 due to injury), Jason Marshall Jr. (a fifth-round rookie), and Kader Kohou (primarily a nickel corner). 

Meanwhile, the Dolphins seemed to unlock Jonnu Smith midway through last season, and the tight end fit well within Mike McDaniel’s offense. Smith led the team in receptions and receiving touchdowns, while logging a career-high 884 yards receiving. Why move on from a player like that? And the replacement is set to be Darren Waller, who was retired at this point last year? Trading away a No. 1 corner and one of your top pass catchers may only further push Miami down the standings and make the seat under McDaniel tremendously hot. 

After selecting pass rusher Abdul Carter with the third overall pick, the New York Giants traded back up into the first round to select Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart. While we shouldn’t expect a C.J. Stroud or Jayden Daniel-type rookie season from Dart, his arrival to the Big Apple is primed to shake up the organization in some way, shape or form. The club has been adamant that Russell Wilson, who signed with the Giants in free agency, will be the Week 1 starter. However, it does seem like it’ll only be a matter of time before Dart leaps over him. Already during offseason workouts, Dart worked with the first and second team offense, so he seemed to be vying for playing time earlier than expected. 

Dart’s eventual ascent could prove to be the last gasp of Wilson’s NFL career, which shouldn’t be overlooked. On top of that, his success if/when he does line up under center could very well determine the fate of the entire Giants masthead. If Brian Daboll pulls that lever and makes Dart QB1 and it fails, he is as good as fired along with general manager Joe Schoen. If he shows some promise and New York is at least respectable, that could result in both Daboll and Shoen keeping their jobs, and suddenly the Giants have an arrow that’s not pointing towards the depths of the NFL. 

It cannot be overstated how important it was for the Baltimore Ravens to retain Ronnie Stanley. He was unquestionably the top left tackle on the market, and it appeared for a minute that he’d depart Baltimore for the highest bidder. Instead, he decided to ink a three-year, $60 million contract just a day before the legal tampering window opened. By keeping Stanley in-house, the Ravens solidified that Lamar Jackson will continue to have elite protection on the blindside. And for a team that is in the thick of its Super Bowl window, it’s a monumental signing. 

Had he decided to truly enter the market and leave, there wasn’t much out there in free agency for Baltimore to replace him with. The next-best tackle was arguably Dan Moore Jr., who gave up 12 sacks with the Pittsburgh Steelers last season. If they opted to find his replacement at the NFL Draft, that brings its own set of question marks. Keeping Jackson upright is the most important thing for Baltimore’s Super Bowl hopes, and keeping Stanley helps do just that. 

7. Patriots hiring Mike Vrabel as head coach

New England has endured what Robert Kraft called “the worst” two-year run of his ownership tenure, as the Patriots have gone 4-13 in each of the previous two seasons. However, there is promise for the organization to turn things around in 2025. The club addressed key needs along the roster in both free agency and at the NFL Draft, and seems to have found its building block at quarterback with rising sophomore Drake Maye. 

While all of that certainly will make New England a more talented outfit, the hiring of Mike Vrabel should be looked at as the biggest move of the franchise’s offseason. His presence on the sideline and proven in-game coaching ability (something that was sorely lacking throughout last season) raise the floor of what the Patriots may be in 2025. On the betting markets, they are -235 to go over their 7.5 win total and are also favored to go over 8.5 at -120. If they do, that’s more than doubling their win total from a season ago and, if they reach nine wins, it’s more than they’ve had in the prior two years combined. Certainly, a piece of that optimism is due to the arrival of more talented players, but a chunk of it also belongs to stability at the head coach position in Vrabel. 

This game of quarterback musical chairs impacts three different organizations: the Seattle Seahawks, Las Vegas Raiders and Minnesota Vikings. First, Minnesota decided against retaining Darnold and opted to enter this coming season with former first-round pick J.J. McCarthy under center. With a return to the Vikings no longer an option for Darnold, he set his sights on the Seahawks, but Seattle first had to trade away starter Geno Smith to the Raiders. All three of these organizations will now have new starting quarterbacks. But how will it all shake out? 

The Raiders are unquestionably better with Smith as their quarterback as opposed to the combination of Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell last year. For the Vikings, it makes sense to see what they have in McCarthy after investing a first-round pick in him a year ago. 

As for the Seahawks, this is more of a risky endeavor. They certainly got younger with Darnold (28) over Smith (34), but will they get better quarterback play? Darnold turned back into a pumpkin at the tail end of last season with his Vikings unable to score double-digit points in Week 18 against the Lions, nor during their one-and-done playoff appearance against the Rams. There’s a scenario where Darnold was primarily the beneficiary of an outstanding situation in Minnesota and is primed to regress now that he’s surrounded by a lesser cast, resulting in a $100 million miscue by Seattle. 

The offensive line was a major issue for the Houston Texans last season. While the unit certainly needed fixing, trading away your best lineman wasn’t exactly the way most folks thought they’d address it. The return for the star left tackle was substantial, but C.J. Stroud was sacked 52 times in 2024, and according to Pro Football Focus, Tunsil only accounted for two of those. He was hardly the problem, and if this revamped line struggles — particularly whoever takes over at blindside tackle — it could have major ramifications for Stroud taking another step forward in Year 3 and the Texans’ overall success. 

Conversely, this was a major get for the Washington Commanders, who are coming off an appearance in the NFC Championship Game. They struck gold with Jayden Daniels and have now given their rising second-year quarterback a bona fide left tackle to protect him, which should only help his development. A team that was in the NFL’s final four a season ago got notably better at one of the most important positions in the sport. 

No one moves the needle quite like Aaron Rodgers. He is now set to be the Pittsburgh Steelers starting quarterback after inking a one-year deal with the franchise for what may be his final season in the NFL. If we’re talking about impact on the 2025 season, it’s hard to argue putting this move any lower. Given where the Steelers were in the offseason at the time of Rodgers finally making his decision to sign, they were on the doorstep of possibly being forced to start Mason Rudolph. 

Had that scenario played out, we were looking at Mike Tomlin enduring his first under .500 season and the bottom completely falling out from under the Steelers. With Rodgers in-house, Pittsburgh can no longer be looked at as an easy out on a weekly basis and could prove to be competitive in the AFC playoff picture if the veteran quarterback still has some of his Hall of Fame talent in the tank. The investment in trading for and signing star wideout DK Metcalf earlier this offseason will also now bear fruit with Rodgers throwing him the football as opposed to Rudolph or rookie Will Howard. 

The Bengals spent big this offseason, retaining some of their key figures on offense. Of course, signing Ja’Marr Chase to his earth-shattering $161 million contract extension was a no-brainer. But the Bengals also extended fellow receiver Tee Higgins to a four-year, $115 million deal and tight end Mike Gesicki to a three-year, $25.5 million contract. 

In a vacuum, those deals are all well and good, as both Higgins and Gesicki have proven to be solid pieces for Joe Burrow. That said, keeping those figures in-house appears to have come at the cost of not improving the defensive side of the ball. The Bengals remain embattled in contract disputes with both star pass rusher Trey Hendrickson and first-round edge rusher Shemar Stewart. Specifically with Hendrickson, if that situation continues to devolve and lead to his departure, a Cincinnati defense that was already poor in 2024 will lose its best player, who just led the NFL with 17.5 sacks.

Instead of signing Higgins and/or Gesicki, there was a strong case to be made for Cincinnati to use that capital to bolster the defensive side of the ball, even if that meant taking a small step backwards offensively. After all, the Bengals had six losses when the offense scored 25 or more points last season, which tied an NFL record. They also had two losses when scoring 38 or more points (also tied for an NFL record). 

2. Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn both leaving the Lions

The Detroit Lions were the No. 1 seed in the NFC last season and will now look to replicate that success and push closer towards a Super Bowl run without their coordinators. Both Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn left the organization this offseason after being hired as head coaches by the Chicago Bears and New York Jets, respectively. While Detroit still has Dan Campbell at the helm as head coach and the vast majority of its core roster intact, their departures are a big variable, as they were each sensational on their respective sides of the ball. 

The good news for the Lions is that in each of the previous four instances where a team retained its head coach but lost both coordinators to head coaching jobs in the same offseason, that club still made the playoffs the following season. While that’s encouraging, it remains to be seen if Detroit will be better, the same or worse without Johnson and Glenn. If it’s the latter, that’ll have major ramifications in the NFC North race and the overall NFC playoff picture. 

Speaking of the NFC North, Johnson decided to stay in the division with the Bears, who dramatically improved their roster this offseason. If he brings just baseline coaching to the organization, Chicago could be in the playoff hunt. As for Glenn, he takes over a Jets team that boasted one of the better defenses in the NFL, allowing just 5.0 yards per play in 2024 (tied for the second lowest in the NFL). If he can get serviceable play from his new quarterback Justin Fields, the Jets might be frisky. 

To me, Matthew Stafford staying with the Los Angeles Rams after briefly flirting with a divorce was the most impactful move of the offseason. With Stafford, L.A. is in the Super Bowl conversation thanks to the continued presence of Sean McVay, along with an emerging defense. Without him, the Rams likely would’ve been forced to look at other options like Jimmy Garoppolo, Aaron Rodgers, or some draft prospect. Regardless of who would’ve been under center, Los Angeles would’ve been categorically worse and nowhere close to the Super Bowl ceiling it currently possesses.

Down the stretch, Stafford played like an MVP candidate for the Rams, leading them to a 7-2 record over his final nine games (including playoffs) while averaging 7.6 yards per attempt and throwing 15 touchdowns with just one interception. In the postseason, Los Angeles proved to be the only true threat to the eventual champion Philadelphia Eagles, nearly pulling off a last-second upset in the divisional round. There’s no reason to expect him to slow down in 2025 outside of injury, making the Rams a legit threat to win Super Bowl LX.

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Author: Tyler Sullivan
July 16, 2025 | 11:26 am