After seven long months, football is back. If you’re one of those people who can shut their football brain off during the offseason, that’s great and very emotionally mature of you. Most of the 213-day offseason is nonsense that you can ignore. But at various points in the 5,112 hours without football, there was free agency, the draft, spring workouts, training camp, and the preseason. It was in those 306,720 minutes that things changed for every team. The hirings and the firings, the signings and the waivings, the comebacks and the injuries …
There was a whole lot of stuff this year. Let’s look at what all changed, how that will work, and also how it won't. We start where the Super Bowl champions reside in terms of division, the NFC West, and look at the changes, the good and the bad for the upcoming 2026 season.
Seattle Seahawks
Coaching changes
- Klint Kubiak (2025 offensive coordinator) took the head coaching job in Las Vegas
- Brian Fleury, offensive coordinator (previously run game coordinator and TEs coach in San Fran)
Players who left
- Coby Bryant, Safety (Chicago)
- Boye Mafe, EDGE (Cincinnati)
- Kenneth Walker III, Running back (Kansas City)
- Riq Woolen, Cornerback (Philadelphia)
Players who joined
- Dante Fowler Jr., EDGE (from Dallas)
- Emmanuel Wilson, Running Back (from Green Bay)
- Jadarian Price, Running Back (32nd overall in the draft)
- Bud Clark, Safety (64th overall in the draft)
- Julian Neal, Cornerback (99th overall in the draft)
The Good
Going into the draft, the Seahawks were in a very tough spot. They didn’t have a whole lot of picks, and they lost a handful of key guys, including Kenneth Walker, in free agency … But that’s what you expect after you have a sick defense and you win a Super Bowl.
The problem is that during the postseason, they lost their other running back, Zach Charbonnet, to an ACL. That meant that they were staring down the barrel of the draft with no starting-caliber running backs, only a few resources, and a hell of a decision to make: Would they trade back (which John Schneider loooves doing) or draft a running back? They chose the latter and picked Jadarian Price.
That’s great, because the running back market this offseason was a hellscape purely because there wasn’t a whole lot of talent available. The Seahawks are a team that loves to run the ball, and now they have a guy they should be able to trust to do it effectively.
Another good thing they did was a little less sexy: re-signing their cornerback Josh Jobe. When you have a defensive backfield that’s as rock solid as what the Seahawks had last year, the offenses will have to target the weak spots. Jobe was that spot for Seattle, but he still held up really, really well.
So they gave him a three-year deal for a cool $24 million, and now they have a guy to play with Devon Witherspoon (who they also paid). It’s always a good idea when you keep solid players for cheap, and it’s cool that a former UDFA has found a home.
The Bad
What do Adam Gase, Jeremy Bates, Dowell Loggains, Matt Rhule, Joe Brady, Jeff Nixon, and Ben McAdoo have in common? They were Sam Darnold’s offensive coordinators and head coaches when he was the worst. What do Kevin O’Connell and Klint Kubiak have in common? They were Sam Darnold’s coaches when he was awesome.
We don’t know what Brian Fleury is going to be as an offensive coordinator. If I had to guess, he’s not going to end up calling plays and running an offense nearly as well as KOC and Kubiak, but that’s more because those guys are top-tier dudes. Maybe he’ll end up working out; he was with Kyle Shanahan for five years, and you don’t stick around for that long if you stink … but I imagine that things will be a little rocky right out of the gate.
If that’s the case, the offense can always rely on the run. I know I just listed Jadarian Price as a positive for the Seahawks; this could very well be just as much of a bad thing. He was the second-best running back in the draft, but it was a class that did not have a whole lot of running back talent, so that’s not nearly as impressive as it would be in any other year.
Seattle’s running back room is Price, George Holani, and Emmanuel Wilson. You could slap the label of ‘Unproven’ on every single one of those guys. That’s not a perfect situation for a team that loves a dominant ground game.
Los Angeles Rams
Coaching changes
- Mike LaFleur (2025 offensive coordinator) took the head coaching job in Arizona.
- Nate Scheelhaus, offensive coordinator (previously passing game coordinator with the Rams).
- Bubba Ventrone, special teams coordinator (previously special teams coordinator in Cleveland).
Players who left
- Akhello Witherspoon, Cornerback (Retired)
- Cobie Durant, Cornerback (Dallas)
- Jared Verse, EDGE (trade with Cleveland)
Players who joined
- Trent McDuffie, Cornerback (trade with Kansas City)
- Jaylen Watson, Cornerback (Kansas City)
- Myles Garrett, DE (trade with Cleveland)
- Aaron Donald, DT (came out of retirement)
- Ty Simpson, QB (13th overall)
- Max Klare, TE (61st overall)
- Keagen Trost, OT (93rd overall)
The Good
Let’s make this quick: Not every team looks at the weak areas of their roster and makes moves to get better. Before free agency, the Rams traded for Trent McDuffie and made their cornerback room much better … then they just went out and got Jaylen Watson in free agency and got better on both sides of the field.
They didn’t stop there. On June 1st, they traded Jared Verse and a bunch of draft picks to the Browns for Myles Garrett, which means they have Matthew Stafford, the 2025 NFL MVP, as their quarterback and the 2025 Defensive Player of the Year … and then Aaron Donald pulled the ultimate ‘one last job’ and came out of retirement. It was one of the most productive offseasons that we’ve seen in a pretty long time.
The Bad
The Rams have the most talented starters in the NFL. That’s undeniable. But behind them? There’s not much. Behind their new cornerbacks, it’s the pipsqueak, Emmanuel Forbes. Behind their offensive tackles, it’s David Quessenberry, who hasn’t played real snaps in a handful of years. Behind Puka Nacua and Davante Adams, it’s Jordan Whittington. Behind Matthew Stafford, it’s the rookie, Ty Simpson.
That’s the biggest (and only) roster blunder the Rams made in the past seven months. Everything that they did this year was to win Super Bowl LX … Except for the part where they drafted Matthew Stafford’s future replacement. When they picked Simpson that early, they passed over getting a high-end offensive tackle or high-end wide receiver who could provide some depth for an oft-injured pass-catching group.
Depth is by far the biggest issue the Rams are looking at. The other issue they could be running into is their special teams, which have been an issue for Sean McVay’s teams since the dawn of time. Last year, they had a bunch of kicking issues, and it led to Joshua Karty getting benched and Chase Blackburn getting fired.
This offseason, they went outside the building and hired Bubba Ventrone to be their new coordinator. I think this is a bad idea for one reason, and it’s not a good one: McVay doesn’t value special teams, and I don’t think this year will be any different. Just because he changed the coordinator doesn’t mean it’s going to work out. That being said, this is the champagniest-champagne problem you could ever have. The Rams are a really good football team.
San Francisco 49ers
Coaching changes
- Robert Saleh (2025 defensive coordinator) took the head coaching job in Tennessee.
- Raheem Morris, defensive coordinator (previously head coach of the Falcons).
Players who left
- Jauan Jennings, Wide Receiver (Minnesota)
- Spencer Burford, Guard (Las Vegas)
- Dee Winters, Linebacker (Trade with Dallas)
- Kendrick Bourne, Wide Receiver (Arizona)
Players who joined
- Mike Evans, Wide Receiver (Tampa Bay)
- Christian Kirk, Wide Receiver (Houston)
- Dre Greenlaw, Linebacker (Denver)
- Osa Odighizuwa, Defensive Tackle (Trade with Dallas)
- De’Zhaun Stribling, Wide Receiver (33rd overall pick in the draft)
The Good
During the first week of free agency, the 49ers sent a third-round pick to the Cowboys for Osa Odighizuwa. That was a fleecing by San Fran. He’s a pass-rushing defensive tackle with a lot of unseen potential and upside, and the fact that the 49ers only had to pay a third-rounder for him is a big-time win. He’ll (probably) be the guy who starts in Week 1 because of all the injuries the 49ers are dealing with, so we’ll be able to see him show his stuff early and often.
Getting Dre Greenlaw back was also a solid move with high upside. He was pretty good playing alongside Fred Warner since 2019. Then, during Super Bowl LVIII in 2023, he popped his Achilles and only played in two games during the 2024 season. In 2025, he signed a three-year deal with the Broncos, and it really didn’t work out. They released him this spring, and the 49ers re-signed him.
If he can get back to three-quarters of the level he was playing at a few years ago, it’s going to make the guts of that defense a whole lot better than what we’ve seen since he left.
The Bad
We all know that injuries are a monster that’s hanging out under the bed. That monster is eventually going to come out and bite you, and you just have to hope it’s not too bad. The 49ers’ injury monster is their landlord, and he’ll just pop in and hang out for however long he wants. Everything that can go wrong for San Francisco has to do with that whole situation.
Signing Mike Evans didn’t cost the 49ers a whole lot (he actually took a discount), but the offseason has been laying the groundwork for a rough season. The wheels fell off for the guy last year, and he’s missed a whole bunch of training camp with a groin and a quad injury.
Some guys don’t need training camps, and Evans definitely falls into that category. So maybe this has been a situation where they give the guy some rest so he doesn’t break an axle during the season … But it could also very much be foreshadowing for the next four months.
If they were counting on him being as massive a contributor as he had been for the Buccaneers for the past decade, they’re going to be hurting … especially since the other wide receivers on the roster are a rookie De’Zhaun Stribling, a washed Deebo Samuel, and a less-than-great Demarcus Robinson.
It also seems like the 49ers botched their running back depth as well, but that’s kind of understandable because not only are they bad at drafting, but running backs were a hot commodity this offseason. Now they’re just counting on a 30-year-old Christian McCaffrey to stay healthy and productive for a season following one where he had 413 touches … So, that’s not great.
Arizona Cardinals
Coaching changes
- Jonathan Gannon got fired (defensive coordinator in Green Bay)
- Mike LaFleur, head coach (previously offensive coordinator with the Rams)
- Drew Petzing left and took the offensive coordinator job in Detroit
- Nathaniel Hackett, offensive coordinator (previously defensive analyst in Green Bay)
Players who left
- Kyler Murray, Quarterback (Minnesota)
Players who joined
- Isaac Seumalo, Left Guard (Pittsburgh)
- Tyler Allgeier, Running Back (Atlanta)
- Kendrick Bourne, Wide Receiver (San Fran)
- Jeremiah Love, Running Back (3rd overall)
- Chase Bisontis, Guard (34th overall)
- Carson Beck, Quarterback (65th overall)
The Good
Isaac Seumalo is awesome and has been awesome for the vast majority of his career, and there were a whole bunch of teams that (hopefully) tried to sign him in free agency. The Cardinals were the ones who ended up getting it done to the tune of a three-year, $31.5 million contract.
This is a veteran who can move bodies in the run game and who has allowed seven total sacks on 2,093 pass-blocking snaps (per PFF) in the past four years. He’s the real deal, and he shores up the left side of that offensive line … Let’s not talk about the right side.
Hiring Matt LaFleur was also a great idea. The guy spent the past three seasons coordinating one of the most high-powered offenses in the NFL alongside Sean McVay. That’s a solid amount of time to be with a guy whose assistant coaches are relative gold in coaching cycles. Now, the obvious hiccup there is that McVay is the one who actually called the plays in Los Angeles …
But this is a growth year for the Cardinals as a franchise; LaFleur shouldn’t be expected to come in and make adjustments and call everything perfectly right off the bat. He just needs to show growth as a playcaller and show that he has the ability to keep a hollow team together. We’ll know if he’s the right guy for the job once he gains the confidence to tell everyone that he’s wearing a piece and that it’s not his actual hair.
The Bad
When the Cardinals drafted Jeremiyah Love third overall, they completely ignored a grounding principle of rebuilding teams: use premium resources on premium positions. As much as it hurts my Concussion Uncle heart, running back is not a premium position.
Sure, he could end up being one of the best running backs in the NFL, and this pick will be looked on nicely … But this is a team that needs much more foundational and structural help on both sides of the ball.
There have been teams (most recently, the Lions with Jahmyr Gibbs) who drafted a high-caliber running back early and had immediate success … But that’s because the framework of a strong team was already built. The Cardinals are just not there … and now their rookie is the fifth-highest-paid player at his position.
Maybe that will work out, but the other bad thing they did definitely won’t:
About once a month for the past six months, I get rudely reminded that Nathaniel Hackett is still employed by an NFL franchise for his offensive mind. This is a guy who made his bread as Aaron Rodgers’ guy in Green Bay and has done nothing but disappoint everywhere else (except for when he was the Jags’ OC in 2017) … And Arizona hired him to be their offensive coordinator. It doesn’t make sense, and the Cardinals will be looking for someone new next spring.
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