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As we all prepare for training camps in the 2026 NFL season, every player is in the best shape of his life, every coach is totally excited about the roster he's been given, and there are paths to wonderful things for each of the league's 32 franchises.
It's always easy to lean on those clichés before a single game has been played, of course.
Obviously, not every NFL team has legitimate championship opportunities this season, but no matter where a given team sits in the pecking order, getting better on the field means that certain players must step up their performances.
Whether it's veterans who have recently underwhelmed, free agency acquisitions who must align with their new teammates, or draft picks of whom much is expected, here's one player for every NFL team who has to bump up his game for the best possible things to happen.
(Click on the players' names to read the full reports. All advanced metrics courtesy of Sumer Sports, Pro Football Focus, Sports Info Solutions, and FTN.)
NFC East
Dallas Cowboys: DL Rashan Gary
Now that Osa Odighizuwa has been traded to the San Francisco 49ers, it’s going to be up to Gary to step in and step up to replace one of the more underrated defensive linemen in the NFL. Gary is far from underrated; he was selected with the 12th overall pick in the 2019 draft out of Michigan, and while he isn’t a “bust” per se, he hasn’t quite lived up to that spot.
So far, it seems that Gary’s faith in new defensive coordinator Christian Parker’s coaching acumen is well-placed.
“Smart, intelligent, and understands how to use his players,” Gary said in June of his new DC. “So far, going through OTAs and minicamp, [Parker] understands how to get matchups. Understanding how to mess with the quarterback in terms of making them check calls — check into a play that they don’t want to particularly check into. So, it’s been fun. It’s only going to get bigger and bigger and more.”
New York Giants: TE Isaiah Likely
With two tight ends on the field last season, Giants quarterbacks (primarily rookie Jaxson Dart, with a side of Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston) completed 91 of 140 passes for 1,245 yards, 693 air yards, seven touchdowns, two interceptions, and a passer rating of 106.3 — ninth-best in the league. When you rank 22nd in Offensive DVOA as the Giants did in 2025, you’ll look at any port in a storm from a personnel perspective.
That’s one reason the Giants signed former Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely to a three-year, $40 million contract with $27 million guaranteed in the offseason. Harbaugh is obviously more than familiar with Likely’s oeuvre — the Coastal Carolina alum, selected in the fourth round of the 2022 draft, caught all 146 of his 198 targets for 1,744 yards and 17 touchdowns for new head coach John Harbaugh’s Baltimore Ravens.
Philadelphia Eagles: CB Riq Woolen
At his best, Woolen would make any defensive coach happy. There are other times when… well, maybe not so much. Last season, he allowed 47 catches on 82 targets for 467 yards, six touchdowns, one interception, 10 pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 93.9. As great as he was at times, Woolen also had stretches in which he simply let his reads and his fundamentals go.
Outside cornerback is a difficult position to play, and the weeds are full of guys who couldn’t quite wrap their minds around all of the intricacies, even when their talents got them in the door. Now, it’s Riq Woolen’s challenge to see if a new environment can help him put it all together. Though one can legitimately ask — if Woolen couldn’t do that in the NFL’s best defense, where can he?
Washington Commanders: WR Antonio Williams
Assuming Scary Terry McLaurin returns to health as the obvious WR1, there are far more questions than answers behind him. Treylon Burks, Luke McCaffrey, Dyami Brown, and Van Jefferson? That’s not a cadre of receivers that will scare a lot of defenses, and while free agent tight end acquisition Chig Okonkwo can make plays, someone else is going to need to grab the baton here.
Which is why the team selected Clemson’s Antonio Williams with the 71st overall pick in the third round of the 2026 NFL Draft. Williams is coming off a 2025 season in which he caught 55 passes on 72 targets for 604 yards and four touchdowns, but if you want to see what he’s really capable of, go back to the 2024 season, where he caught 75 passes on 100 targets for 908 yards and 11 touchdowns.
AFC East
Buffalo Bills: WR Keon Coleman
When the Bills took the 6-foot-3, 213-pound Coleman with the first pick in the second round two years ago, the hope was that he would be the reliable, big-bodied receiver who could rip it up with Josh Allen throwing all kinds of howitzers in his direction. But that hasn’t worked out to anybody’s satisfaction so far.
In his rookie campaign, Coleman’s effect could be summed up in Buffalo’s 47-10 Week 3 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. Coleman caught his first NFL touchdown pass despite missing the first quarter of the game because he had been late for a team meeting. Injuries and further discipline issues scuttled his first season, in which he had just 29 catches on 57 targets for 556 yards and four touchdowns.
2025 was no better.
Miami Dolphins: WR Jalen Tolbert
Replacing Jaylen Waddle will not be easy. Right now, the Dolphins’ receiver depth chart is… well, we could kindly call it an experiment in future earnings. Veterans Tutu Atwell, Malik Washington, and Terrace Marshall Jr., as well as draft picks Caleb Douglas, Chris Bell, and Kevin Coleman Jr.? That’s not a receiver room estimated to take the NFL by storm, and it’s hardly the best group for new quarterback Malik Willis, another Green Bay import.
The one guy in the room who could elevate himself is Jalen Tolbert, the fifth-year receiver out of South Alabama whom the Dallas Cowboys selected in the third round of the 2022 draft. The Dolphins signed Tolbert to a one-year, veteran minimum deal at $1,402,500 with $1,262,500 guaranteed.
The economics would tell you that the Dolphins aren’t expecting too much out of Tolbert, but if they can get what the Cowboys got out of him in 2024, when he caught 49 passes on 79 targets for 610 yards and seven touchdowns, that would be ideal. 2024 marked the third straight season in which Tolbert saw serious statistical upticks, so the thought was that he would keep ascending.
New England Patriots: OT Will Campbell
As they come into the 2026 NFL season, and out of a 2025 campaign in which they shocked just about everybody by making it all the way to Super Bowl LX, the New England Patriots have a related question on their hands: Is Will Campbell, the left tackle they took out of LSU with the fourth overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, the man for that most important position? Campbell’s college tape raised more than a few questions about his future as an edge protector…
…and that showed up more and more as Campbell’s rookie season progressed. In 782 regular-season snaps, Campbell allowed five sacks, five quarterback hits, and 16 quarterback hurries. Then, in 264 postseason snaps, Campbell gave up four sacks, two hits, and 13 hurries. Campbell’s 17 blown blocks in four postseason games, including the Patriots’ loss to the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX, were alarming at best.
New York Jets: QB Geno Smith
Smith’s 2025 season in the 3-14 Las Vegas Raiders' offense was a relative disaster — 302 completions in 448 attempts for 3,025 yards, 19 touchdowns, a league-high 17 interceptions, a league-high 54 sacks, and a passer rating of 84.7 — his worst as a starter since 2014 (77.5).
The Jets, who struggled to their own 3-14 record last season with Justin Fields, Tyrod Taylor, and Brady Cook as their quarterbacks, couldn’t care less. They’re of the belief that with a better offensive line and better receivers than Smith had in 2025, he can hit the reclamation trail yet again.
“I’m extremely confident, but not arrogant,” Smith said in March, when asked how much he has left in the tank.
NFC North
Chicago Bears: WR Rome Odunze
Injuries have certainly played a part in Odunze’s disappointing career to date. Most notably, he suffered a stress fracture in his foot early in the 2025 season, and that injury ultimately cost him five games. There may be lasting repercussions from that issue.
“This is my new normal,” Odunze recently said. “And it’s not from a standpoint where I’m always in pain. But the way my foot broke, there are calluses in there that create a different type of foot structure with those bones. So, my new normal is kind of what I am going into.”
If Odunze’s explosiveness is limited as it was in 2025, that’s certainly a problem, but the more obvious attribute Odunze needs to recapture from his college days is his ability to beat defenders on contested catches. It was his alpha skill in college, and the Bears expected that the 6-foot-3, 212-pound Odunze would continue that in the NFL.
Detroit Lions: CB Rock Ya-Sin
When Terrion Arnold was healthy in the first half of the season, Ya-Sin was not a major part of the program. In Weeks 1-9, Ya-Sin had just 98 coverage snaps, and he allowed 10 catches on 19 targets for 94 yards, 10 yards after the catch, four pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 84.1.
With Arnold out, Ya-Sin’s participation went way up. In Weeks 10-18, he had 284 coverage snaps (only Amik Robertson had more among Detroit’s cornerbacks with 287), and Ya-Sin responded with authority. He gave up 17 catches on 31 targets for 193 yards, 70 yards after the catch, five pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 73.7. Ya-Sin didn’t have an interception last season, but he also allowed only one touchdown on all those targets.
Green Bay Packers: Edge Lukas Van Ness
If there’s one guy on that Packers defense who needs to step up — especially in Micah Parsons’ absence — it’s fourth-year edge-rusher Lukas Van Ness, who the Packers selected out of Iowa with the 13th overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. When you take a pass-rusher that high in a draft, you obviously expect him to make impacts both immediate and long-term, and Van Ness has done neither to date.
In 2025, Van Ness managed just 1.5 sacks and 27 pressures, and he missed eight games due to injury. Van Ness’ career numbers (8.5 sacks and 69 pressures) over three seasons would comprise a decent season for any of the NFL’s premier pass-rushers, which has left him on the outs when it comes to making his defense better.
Minnesota Vikings: QB J.J. McCarthy
McCarthy showed the ability to overcome first-game yips in his first NFL start, but overall, the 2025 season was very much a mixed bag. He dealt with more injuries that left him with just 10 games, and he completed 140 of 243 passes (57.6%) for 1,632 yards (6.7 yards per attempt), 11 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, and a passer rating of 72.6.
Overall, a lot of the things that bedeviled McCarthy back at Michigan — and why I gave him a second-round grade at best — still showed up in 2025.
Now, with the addition of veteran quarterback Kyler Murray to the roster, McCarthy is no longer the no-matter-what starter based on draft position. He’s going to have to earn that job as if he had been a middle-round pick back in the day.
AFC North
Baltimore Ravens: Edge Trey Hendrickson
The Ravens finished 8-9 last season, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2021, so they made pass rush improvement a priority in the offseason. They first traded for Las Vegas Raiders star edge-rusher Maxx Crosby, but the Ravens negated that deal after a physical amplified concerns about Crosby’s health following knee surgery. Then, they turned their attention to former New Orleans Saints and Cincinnati Bengals pass-rusher Trey Hendrickson, signing Hendrickson to a four-year, $112 million contract with $60 million guaranteed.
Which is a lot of scratch to give a 31-year-old edge defender who missed 10 games due to injury in the 2025 season.
The Ravens are hoping that the Hendrickson they get is the Hendrickson who put up matching 17.5-sack seasons in 2023 and 2024, but that’s no sure thing. Hip, pelvis, and back issues limited the nine-year veteran to four sacks and 23 pressures last season, though he did his level best to fight through the maladies.
Cincinnati Bengals: CB DJ Turner II
If there’s one Bengal who needs to hit the highest mark in 2026 for this defense to work, it’s cornerback DJ Turner II. The Bengals took Turner in the second round of the 2023 draft after a scouting combine in which the Michigan alum blew everybody away with a rare athletic profile. The 5-foot-11, 178-pound Turner ran a 4.26-second 40-yard dash with a 1.47-second 10-yard split, and that 40 put Turner in the 99th percentile for cornerbacks since 1999. Add in a 38 1/2-inch vertical jump (90th percentile) and a 131-inch broad jump (96th percentile), and the only question anybody had about Turner was whether he could live up to all that athletic flash on the field.
Turner’s 2023 rookie season was a bit rough; he allowed an opponent passer rating of 112.2, and though he dropped that to 74.0 in 2024, he didn’t bag his first NFL interception until Week 1 of the 2025 season against the Cleveland Browns. In that 2025 season, Turner allowed just 29 catches on 62 targets for 419 yards, 102 yards after the catch, four touchdowns, two interceptions, 17 pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 77.3.
In many ways, Turner established himself as the CB1 the Bengals desperately needed.
Cleveland Browns: QB Shedeur Sanders
In his rookie season, Sanders completed 120 passes in 212 attempts (56.6%) for 1,400 yards (6.6 yards per attempt), seven touchdowns, 10 interceptions, and a passer rating of 68.1. Not exactly amazing stuff, but there were times when Sanders showed the ability to transcend the issues that got him in trouble as a college quarterback.
Now, it’s about working on the other stuff. Both head coach Todd Monken and quarterbacks coach Mike Bajakian are focusing on the overall attributes any great quarterback must have to succeed.
Sanders seems happy with the new staff, and he’s doing his level best to respond.
Pittsburgh Steelers: WRs Michael Pittman Jr. and Germie Bernard
Last season, the Steelers had very little at receiver beyond DK Metcalf, and that proved out painfully when Metcalf served a two-game suspension at the end of the regular season after a fracas with a Detroit Lions fan in Week 16. Without Metcalf on the field, the passing game fell off a cliff, because the team didn’t have the right kinds of receivers behind Metcalf on the depth chart.
This offseason, the Steelers traded for ex-Indianapolis Colts receiver Michael Pittman Jr., and they also selected Alabama receiver Germie Bernard with the 47th overall pick in the second round. Both Pittman and Bernard are bigger, tough receivers who have no issue with contested catches, and neither one of them shies away from traffic in the middle of the field. Adding their skills to Metcalf’s unique size/speed/catch radius combination amounts to a major upgrade for the Steelers’ receiver corps.
Neither Pittman nor Bernard is a killer downfield guy with deep targets, but it’s highly unlikely that they’ll be asked to do that with any real frequency.
NFC South
Atlanta Falcons: QBs Michael Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa
Having two left-handed quarterbacks on your roster at the same time is an exceedingly rare thing.
In NFL history, exactly two teams have had more than one lefty — the 1991 Cincinnati Bengals with Boomer Esiason and Erik Wilhelm, and the 1997 Jacksonville Jaguars with Mark Brunell and Steve Matthews.
Now, the 2026 Atlanta Falcons with Michael Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa join that group. And unlike the Bengals and Jaguars of their era, there’s no sure thing among the competing lefties. Neither Penix nor Tagovailoa have proven in their careers what Esiason and Brunell did in theirs, and the clock is running.
Carolina Panthers: QB Bryce Young
Now, it’s time for the Carolina Panthers to see and really know what they have in Bryce Young. The first pick in the 2023 NFL Draft has experienced quite the journey so far. He had an underwhelming rookie season behind an offensive line that couldn’t bust a grape, and very little at the receiver position upon which to rely. Year 2 saw Young get benched in favor of Andy Dalton (no, really), and come out strong on the other side of that under new head coach Dave Canales, who had previously been involved in the Geno Smith and Baker Mayfield reclamations.
More was expected in the 2025 season. As eventual Offensive Rookie of the Year Tetairoa McMillan found his feet as his primary target, Young’s improvement took hold. Not to the point where he was suddenly a Top 5 quarterback in the league, but enough for Young to make it onto the NFL’s Top 100 players list at 98, which rubbed some observers the wrong way. Questioning Young’s place on the list is certainly fair, but if he can capitalize on the second half of the 2025 season and make that his new normal, it could be entirely justified.
New Orleans Saints: WR Jordyn Tyson
Had Tyson been healthy throughout his collegiate career, there would be no doubt as to his draft status as a Top 10 overall player, and the best receiver in this class. He showed as much in 2024, when he caught 75 passes on 113 targets for 1,101 yards and 10 touchdowns, despite missing the last two games of the season with a collarbone injury. And though he missed four games last season with a hamstring issue, Tyson still grabbed 61 passes on 97 targets for 711 yards and eight touchdowns.
All this after the knee injury at the end of his 2022 season at Colorado, and the four targets he had in his first Arizona State season in 2023 as he rehabbed that injury, and the injury concerns are real.
Still, the talent blocked them out for the Saints.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: QB Baker Mayfield
If you look at the first half of Mayfield’s 2025 season, it appeared that he was better than ever. Then, everything fell apart. The 2025 Buccaneers started their season 6-2, but devolved all the way down to an 8-9 record when all was said and done. As the team went, so went the quarterback. There were definitely two Baker Mayfields in 2025, and the Baker Mayfield we saw in the first half of the season was quite a bit better than the one we saw in the second.
Not that it was all his fault. Mayfield wasn’t just dealing with his own injuries as the result of his hell-bent-for-leather playing style; he also was without the same five offensive linemen on a week-to-week basis, and most of Tampa Bay’s skill players — receivers Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Jalen McMillan, as well as running back Bucky Irving — missed time. And now, Mayfield is without Evans, as the veteran signed a three-year, $42.5 million contract with the San Francisco 49ers.
In the final year of his contract, Mayfield is the NFL’s 16th-highest paid quarterback in terms of Average Annual Value (AAV) at $33,333,333. It’s fair that the 31-year-old Mayfield would want his next contract to put him in a higher tax bracket, but it seems as if the Buccaneers’ front office may be waiting to see which Baker Mayfield they have.
AFC South
Houston Texans: QB C.J. Stroud
Back in 2023, there was no question whatsoever that the Texans had their future franchise quarterback in second overall pick C.J. Stroud, the Offensive Rookie of the Year who broke the Ohio State Quarterback Curse and made the Pro Bowl. Stroud did that with a rookie season in which he completed 319 of 499 passes for 4,108 yards, 23 touchdowns, five interceptions, and a passer rating of 100.8.
Since then, things have not gone as well. In 2024, Stroud’s efficiency dropped behind an offensive line that allowed 52 sacks and 273 total pressures, and though he took only 23 sacks and 209 pressures last season, Houston’s season ended with a 28-16 divisional round loss to the New England Patriots in which Stroud completed just 20 of 47 passes for 212 yards, one touchdown, four interceptions, and a passer rating of 28.0.
It was the worst game of Stroud’s career at the worst possible time, and it left a lot of people wondering just what was up with Stroud’s present and future.
Indianapolis Colts: QB Daniel Jones
The hope was that Jones, who the team signed to a one-year, $14 million contract before the 2025 season, could take the franchise out of said wilderness. Jones never panned out with the New York Giants, who selected him with the sixth overall pick in the 2019 draft.
It worked very well for a while. In Weeks 1-8 under head coach and offensive shot-caller Shane Steichen, Jones completed 173 of 243 passes for 2,062 yards, 13 touchdowns, three interceptions, and a passer rating of 109.5. And at that point, Indy’s offense was as dangerous as any in the NFL.
Problem was, even before the season-ending torn Achilles tendon he suffered in Week 14 against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Jones had started to fall apart in familiar fashion. From Week 9 on, he completed 88 of 141 passes for 1,039 yards, six touchdowns, five interceptions, and a passer rating of 84.2.
Needless to say, the difference was alarming — and spoke to regression we’d seen from Jones before.
Jacksonville Jaguars: WR Brian Thomas Jr.
In 2024, it looked for all the world that Brian Thomas Jr. was set to become the NFL’s next great receiver from LSU, joining Justin Jefferson, Ja’Marr Chase, Malik Nabers, and Odell Beckham Jr. in that group. Thomas, selected with the 23rd overall pick in the first round of the 2024 draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars, had a marvelous first professional campaign with 87 catches on 133 targets for 1,282 yards and 10 touchdowns.
2025 looked to be even better. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence had his best season to date under new head coach and offensive shot-caller Liam Coen. The Jaguars’ offense helped the team to a 13-4 record and the AFC South title. But Thomas was an innocent bystander at best, and an unexpected liability at worst. Ankle, shoulder, and concussion issues got in the way, and Thomas regressed to just 48 catches on 91 targets for 707 yards and two touchdowns.
Tennessee Titans: WR Carnell Tate
There were some who wondered about the Tennessee Titans’ decision to make Tate the first receiver taken in the 2026 draft with the fourth overall selection. The book on Tate was that he may be a better fit as a “Z” receiver, meaning a team’s ideal No. 2 guy, as opposed to a true No. 1 receiver who can take the top off a defense.
Perhaps it was the fact that Tate lived in Jeremiah Smith’s shadow last season, though he had more big plays in 2025 than Smith did. Perhaps it was the calf strain that forced Tate to miss three games, and obviously affected his stats. Perhaps people questioned his straight-line speed too often, and didn’t pay enough attention to his technical expertise for a player so young — Tate turned 21 on January 19.
The Titans were not concerned; they looked far more at the attributes than the alleged liabilities.
NFC West
Arizona Cardinals: DL Walter Nolen III
The hope is obviously that DL Walter Nolen can make the most of his potential, which was limited in 2025 as the 16th overall pick missed serious time in his rookie season due to injury — including a torn meniscus of his own, which may delay his return until training camp.
Nolen missed the first eight weeks of the 2025 season due to a calf injury he suffered in training camp, and the aforementioned torn meniscus he suffered against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 16 shut him down for the duration.
When he was on the field, though, Nolen looked like a Pro Bowler right out of the chute.
Los Angeles Rams: LB Nate Landman
Where there is still some uncertainty, though, is at the linebacker position. Before the 2025 season, the Rams signed former Atlanta Falcons LB Nate Landman to a one-year, $1.1 million deal. It was an afterthought as the numbers would suggest, but defensive coordinator Chris Shula saw something in Landman right away, and Landman paid that faith back in Week 1. In a 14-9 win over the Houston Texans, Landman had 10 tackles and a game-clinching forced fumble, which garnered him NFC Defensive Player of the Week honors.
From Week 1 through the NFC Championship game, Landman continued to stand out for the most part. Per Pro Football Focus, he totaled 114 solo tackles, 57 stops, 10 tackles for loss, and five forced fumbles. In coverage, he allowed 59 catches on 73 targets for 651 yards, 431 yards after the catch, three touchdowns, one interception, eight pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 111.8.
Landman’s place in Shula’s defense is especially important because of the sheer amount of dime defense Shula calls.
San Francisco 49ers: WR Mike Evans
When you have two non-receivers on future Hall of Fame tracks on your offense like Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle, the dearth of talent in the receiver room can be mitigated to a degree.
But when the 49ers signed former Tampa Bay Buccaneers receiver Mike Evans to a three-year, $42.5 million contract with $14.3 million guaranteed this offseason, it appeared that Kyle Shanahan wanted more No. 1 in his receiver group.
Because when healthy, Evans has been that throughout his estimable career.
Seattle Seahawks: OG Anthony Bradford
If there is one spot that is sure to give Seahawks fans stress when considering the new season, it’s the right guard position, currently manned by Anthony Bradford. A fourth-round pick in the 2023 draft out of LSU, Bradford has allowed 13 sacks and 94 pressures in 1,472 pass-blocking reps in his three-year NFL career, and the tape is often worse than the metrics.
Bradford leans and lunges too often when he needs to maintain leverage with his feet, his recovery speed and awareness when he’s been beaten are sub-par, and he has looked too much like an innocent bystander when he’s supposed to be a protective force. The 6-foot-4, 332-pound Bradford can be an asset in the power run game at times, and he’s physically formidable when he’s technically sound, but that doesn’t happen often enough at this point.
AFC West
Denver Broncos: CB Riley Moss
Last season for Denver’s fifth-ranked defense in DVOA, Moss allowed 70 catches on 125 targets for 871 yards, 175 yards after the catch, seven touchdowns, one interception, 17 pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 93.1. Including the postseason, the 2023 third-round pick out of Iowa logged 1,048 snaps as an outside cornerback, which made him Patrick Surtain’s primary bookend.
That’s not an easy role, as opposing quarterbacks aren’t exactly eager to test Pat Surtain, one of the NFL’s best cornerbacks. Moss led the NFL in targets, passing yards allowed, and pass breakups, and he also allowed the league’s third-most first downs and touchdowns in coverage with a combined total of 40.
Kansas City Chiefs: WR Xavier Worthy
Things started to fall apart in 2025, mostly due to Worthy’s injuries. He suffered a torn labrum in the Chiefs’ Week 1 loss to the Los Angeles Chargerswhen he bumped into teammate and noted Taylor Swift fan Travis Kelce. Worthy played through it as best as he could, but you could see the negative effects in the metrics and on the field. Worthy caught 42 passes on 73 targets last season for 532 yards and one touchdown in 2025, and as there was no postseason for the 6-11 Chiefs, that was the slammed door on a disappointing second season for the 6-foot-0, 165-pound receiver.
Worthy had offseason surgery on the shoulder in January, and the hope is that he’ll come back not only with optimal explosiveness, but perhaps a bit bulkier.
Las Vegas Raiders: WR Jalen Nailor
Overall in 2025, Nailor caught just 29 of 49 passes for 444 yards and four touchdowns — but like every other receiver on the Minnesota Vikings’ roster last season (including Justin Jefferson), Nailor was negatively affected by quarterback J.J. McCarthy’s lack of consistency.
Even under those circumstances, Nailor was more than capable of making explosive plays. He caught five passes of 20 or more air yards on nine targets for 159 yards and a touchdown, and based on the tape, there’s more in his skill set where that came from.
That's why the Raiders gave Nailor a three-year, $35.03 million contract this offseason.
Los Angeles Chargers: Edge Akheem Mesidor
Mesidor’s college journey is interesting. He spent his first two NCAA seasons at West Virginia in 2020 and 2021 before transferring to Miami in time for the 2022 season. When healthy, Mesidor has generally been a standout disruptor, but “when healthy” is kind of an issue. A shoulder issue that required surgery before he started with the Hurricanes in 2022, and multiple foot injuries over the last few years were in the minds of NFL evaluators, as is the fact that Mesidor turned 25 on April 5. More older players are entering the draft in the NIL age, but some in the league might still consider it a negative.
The Chargers didn’t. Instead, they marked the gap versatility Mesidor has shown throughout his career as a serious plus. In the 2024 season, for example, he played more than 200 of his snaps inside the offensive tackles, as opposed to on the edge, and he totaled two sacks and 14 pressures as an interior defensive lineman.
