The Moves We Hated for Fantasy This Offseason

Every move an NFL team makes is designed to improve its situation. It’s just that exactly how a situation can improve is different for every team. Sometimes that means a win-now move. Sometimes it means a pivot to greater success later. Sometimes a team improving its situation doesn’t necessarily mean that we as fantasy football managers reap that benefit.

And of course, sometimes a team tries to make itself better and screws it up.

The upshot of all of this is that, even as every team is trying to improve with every move, some moves matter more than others for fantasy.

So today, I’m looking at the moves this offseason that hurt the most for fantasy football, the moves that either kill someone’s fantasy value or muddle it so much that we can’t figure out what to make of it. Thursday, I looked at the best offseason moves.

Worst Offseason Moves for Fantasy Football 2025

Browns Give Us a QB Quagmire

The Deshaun Watson move couldn’t really have worked out any worse for Cleveland, and his salary really put the team behind the 8-ball. I’m not sure there was a move that would have been a winner for this team this offseason, but “keep Watson, trade for Kenny Pickett, sign Joe Flacco again and draft Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders” certainly wasn’t it. There’s no one here who promises much of anything as a fantasy option or looks capable of getting the best out of Jerry Jeudy like Jameis Winston did.

There is one way we can consider this a win for fantasy: It lets us ignore a team. Unless you are particularly fond of Quinshon Judkins and/or David Njoku, you can pretty safely just ignore the Browns for fantasy. So it at least helps us narrow down our options.

Tampa Overloads at Receiver

Whereas the Browns present difficulty because they have a bunch of quarterbacks and might have zero good ones, the Buccaneers are difficult because they have a bunch of wide receivers and they might all be good. Mike Evans is of course a known quantity. Chris Godwin commanded big money in free agency to stick around (and took less to do so). Jalen McMillan broke out late in the season last year. Those three would have been interesting enough. But then the Bucs also used their first-round pick on Emeka Egbuka in the draft.

If Godwin turns out not to be ready for the start of the season, this does get a little easier. But even then, this is a talented group of receivers that should be good for the Bucs at large, but it makes things complicated for fantasy managers trying to figure out who to grab. And given Mayfield’s big jump from a career high of 28 touchdowns to 41 last year, any regression makes it even harder for any particular receiver here to pop.

Seahawks Roll with Sam Darnold

Geno Smith wasn’t a superstar in Seattle, but he was an above-average quarterback who rose above what was one of the league’s worst offensive lines. Can Sam Darnold do that? Color me skeptical. Darnold’s pressure-to-sack rate was among the league’s worst, and that was with a decent Vikings O-line. In Seattle, even with first-rounder Grey Zabel now in the fold, he’s going to have a worse line. That’s going to result in a lot of sacks and potential ghost-seeing. Darnold’s career was rejuvenated in 2024, but 2025 promises to prove that 2024 was in fact a career year.

Chiefs Do Diddly for the Running Game

Joe Thuney is gone, with free-agent signee Jaylon Moore and first-rounder Josh Simmons replacing him. If that were all the moves for an elite line, we’d be OK. But the line was what damned the Chiefs at the end of last year. Thuney was one of the best linemen in KC, while Moore has started 12 games in four years, and Simmons is no guarantee to play a lot in 2025 after a ruptured patellar tendon in 2024.

On top of that, Isiah Pacheco looked bad in his return from injury last year. An offseason to recover further might help, but he’s nothing like a sure thing. Kareem Hunt, a retread who hasn’t been good in a while; Elijah Mitchell, in KC on a tiny free-agent deal after missing 35 games the last three years; and Brashard Smith, a seventh-round rookie, are behind Pacheco. This running game could be an absolute mess in 2025.

Cowboys Do Slightly More Than Diddly for the Running Game, Still Not Much

Signing Javonte Williams and Miles Sanders and drafting Jaydon Blue (fifth round) and Phil Mafah (seventh) is more than “Kareem Hunt, Elijah Mitchell and Brashard Smith,” but … barely. The Cowboys have been fertile ground for a productive running back for years now, but as Ezekiel Elliott got old and Tony Pollard got hurt, they just stopped using it. Maybe Williams can find his pre-injury self, or maybe Blue can pop as a Day 3 rookie, but there’s no one we’re excited about in fantasy drafts.

Panthers Do Too Much for Running Game

Breakout and big-money extendee Chuba Hubbard will be the lead back in Carolina next year. And 2024 rookie Jonathon Brooks is on the PUP list as he recovers from a torn ACL, so he’ll miss the year. But still, the Panthers insisted on making things complicated for us by signing former Cowboy Rico Dowdle and drafting Trevor Etienne in the fourth round. Those two will steal enough work from Hubbard to keep him from reaching his ceiling, but neither one will get enough work to matter on his own.

Tyler Lockett, Titans WR2?

The last time the Titans had multiple receivers reach 150 PPR points (roughly a top-50 receiver) was during the Corey Davis era, and the Davis/A.J. Brown duo was the only Titans duo to do so since Nate Washington and Kendall Wright in 2013. They haven’t gotten much out of the receiver position in a while now. And spoiler alert, they aren’t likely to do so in 2025 either. Calvin Ridley should be reliable enough to be a top-30 receiver yet again, but behind him sits Tyler Lockett, who looked kind of done last year; Van Jefferson, who hasn’t looked relevant in five years; Treylon Burks, the ultimate failure to launch; and fourth-round rookie Elic Ayomanor. Don’t make it easy on Cameron Ward or anything, guys.