The goal of each team’s offseason is a little different, but ultimately, they are all trying to best prepare their team for the season ahead. Teams with Super Bowl aspirations are looking to add to a contending roster, while others might be starting full-on rebuilds. Others are more in between, perhaps a young roster looking to take the next step or a team clearing the way for their rookie draft picks to develop.

Whatever a team’s approach, some do it better than others. Below, I’ve ranked the five best offseasons in the league, based on where they were at the end of last season and how they handled the coaching carousel, free agency and the draft.

1 – New York Giants

The Giants put on a masterclass in preparing themselves to take a step forward as a franchise. After embattled HC Brian Daboll was fired midway through the season, the Giants showed some flashes down the stretch, winning their final two games and looking competitive in losses to the Bears, Packers and Lions, among others.

Those performances gave Giants fans hope heading into 2026, and a big reason for that was the play of first-round QB Jaxson Dart. A bit of a surprise selection after New York traded back up to take him, Dart looked promising despite battling concussion issues throughout the season. His legs became a real weapon and his arm talent is legit.

To capitalize on Dart’s potential, the Giants needed a trustworthy head coach to shepherd him. They pounced when the Ravens fired longtime HC John Harbaugh, believing he was the man for the job. Harbaugh brings experience and maturity to New York, and he has a track record of putting the right people in place to develop young quarterbacks. Harbaugh added experience by hiring Matt Nagy as offensive coordinator and Dennard Wilson as his defensive coordinator — both coaches have prior experience in those exact roles with other franchises.

New York needed more than just a coaching overhaul, however. This roster lacked talent in several key areas, and the Giants went about addressing those issues in free agency. Tremaine Edmunds offers speed and athleticism at linebacker that the Giants had been lacking, while Darnell Mooney and Calvin Austin III add some speed and proven production at wide receiver. Re-signing Jermaine Eluemunor at right tackle offers relief for an offensive line starting to come together, and Paulson Adebo and Greg Newsome II dramatically raise the floor at cornerback.

A wrench was thrown into New York’s offseason when star DT Dexter Lawrence demanded a trade after contract talks had reached an impasse. The Giants got the 10th overall pick for Lawrence and subsequently replaced him with free agent signing D.J. Reader to hold the fort as a run-stuffing nose tackle.

Then came the draft. While I might have made different decisions with some of their picks, there’s no denying the Giants meshed need with value well. No. 5 pick Arvell Reese’s most projectable role was as a run-and-chase linebacker who can play on the edge on third downs, and it sounds like that’s exactly what the Giants have in mind. Francis Mauigoa will begin as the right guard, completing this offensive line, and will likely replace Eluemunor at right tackle in future seasons.

Even outside of the first round, the Giants got some immediate contributors in CB Colton Hood and WR Malachi Fields, plus adding some depth to their offensive line with J.C. Davis. I loved what New York did this offseason and if Dart continues to develop, they could be a real playoff threat.

2: Carolina Panthers

When faced with an improbable playoff appearance seemingly out of nowhere, some teams let it go to their head. They start thinking they’re better and more competitive than they actually are, and it inevitably leads to ruin and lost jobs.

Not so with the Panthers. Carolina somehow scraped together a playoff appearance after winning a three-way 8-9 tie in the NFC South, despite losing head-to-head to the Buccaneers in the final game of the regular season. They actually gave the Rams a tough fight before losing in the wild card round, but make no mistake — this team was a long way from being a serious contender.

The Panthers knew that and set about upgrading the talent on their roster. Former Jaguars LB Devin Lloyd was my favorite free agent signing of the entire cycle, and his addition alone turns the biggest weakness on this roster into one of the team’s strengths. Jaelan Phillips, while perhaps overpaid, does make for a big boost to this team’s pass rush, and suddenly Carolina is sporting a legit edge rusher duo between Phillips and second-year man Nic Scourton.

Former first-round LT Ikem Ekwonu’s brutal patellar tendon tear in the playoff loss to the Rams likely means he’ll miss the entirety of the 2026 season, or at the very least most of it. That put a sizable hole at left tackle in Carolina, and they made sure that wouldn’t be an issue. They signed Rasheed Walker to a very affordable contract, and he provides a baseline of at least league-average play. Carolina also drafted Monroe Freeling in the first round, and while Freeling needs some development and isn’t ready to start as a rookie, his upside is immense. He can learn from Walker and continue to grow physically while seeing the field as a swing tackle.

The rest of the Panthers’ draft turned out pretty well, too. Sam Hecht is a starting-caliber center acquired in the fifth round, while Zakee Wheatley raises the floor at safety. Lee Hunter is a good run-stuffing defensive tackle who adds to Carolina’s depth, and Chris Brazzell II is a size/speed demon who offers the Panthers a second chance at what Xavier Legette was supposed to be. All in all, this was a fantastic offseason in Carolina, and now their ceiling will be determined by the play of QB Bryce Young in his fourth season.

3: Las Vegas Raiders

It took a little luck and some rather shameless tanking before the NBA made that conversation cool, but the Raiders landed the No. 1 overall pick in a class with only one quarterback worthy of a top-10 selection. That put them in an envious position among the rebuilding teams, as not only did they have access to that pick, but it became an asset that allowed Las Vegas to attract one of the top head coaching candidates on the market.

The Raiders identified Seahawks OC Klint Kubiak early and patiently waited for him to finish his Super Bowl run before bringing him on as the new head coach in Vegas. He’ll be stapled with Fernando Mendoza, the aforementioned No. 1 pick, and tasked with developing the franchise’s most important player in years.

The Raiders had a pretty rough roster last year and plenty of money to work with in free agency, so they went about spending that money as best they could. Though it took one of the most outlandish overpays in recent memory, they did manage to land the top center in the league, Tyler Linderbaum, to anchor their offensive line. They revamped their linebacker corps with Nakobe Dean and Quay Walker, reuniting the former Georgia duo, on surprisingly affordable deals.

Additionally, the Raiders were able to add CB Taron Johnson in free agency, as well as fourth-round CB Jermod McCoy and second-round S Treydan Stukes in the draft. Those three players should provide a substantial boost to Las Vegas’ secondary. Free agent ED Kwity Paye offers a floor as a run defender, as well.

Of course, the elephant in the room is the failed Maxx Crosby trade. The Raiders had a deal in place with the Ravens that would have sent Crosby to Baltimore for a pair of first-round picks. Las Vegas had even gone through the first two days of free agency and spent a ton of money, with Crosby supposed to be off the books. Then, the Ravens rescinded the trade, citing a failed physical for Crosby, though the timing of their talks with free agent ED Trey Hendrickson certainly looks suspicious.

Regardless of the optics of the Ravens’ decision, the fact is that Crosby is a Raider, and Las Vegas actually rebuffed some renewed trade interest from other teams following the original deal falling through. Those extra picks could have supercharged the Raiders’ rebuild, but Crosby is still an elite pass rusher and it doesn’t hurt to have him on the roster.

4: Cincinnati Bengals

The Bengals aren’t usually known for being big offseason winners. They don’t spend much in free agency or chase blockbuster moves. Still, I liked what the Bengals did on the other end of the Lawrence trade, too. Yes, the No. 10 overall pick would usually be a crazy asset to give up in a trade like this, but this was not a normal draft. The top-end talent wasn’t as strong, and the depth on Day 2 is what made this class special.

With that in mind, Lawrence is a massive upgrade in the middle of that defense, and he’s exactly the missing piece they needed. Cincinnati spent some money in free agency to bolster their defense, getting ED Boye Mafe from the Seahawks on an affordable deal, signing S Bryan Cook from the Chiefs and S Kyle Dugger from the Steelers to improve that unit, and pairing Lawrence with Jonathan Allen on the interior.

In the draft, the Bengals capitalized on C Connor Lew’s fall due to a torn ACL and got the draft’s best center in the fourth round. Cashius Howell in the second is a smart chance to take on an elite college edge rusher with less-than-ideal measureables, while guys like third-round CB Tacario Davis and fifth-round OL Brian Parker II added nice depth in the middle rounds.

The Bengals made that run to the Super Bowl a few years ago, following that up with an AFC Championship Game appearance. But they haven’t even made the playoffs in the last three seasons due to a combination of injuries, a poor offensive line, and a porous defense. Cincy is currently wasting the primes of two of the truly elite players in this league in QB Joe Burrow and WR Ja’Marr Chase. They approached this offseason like they knew they were running out of chances to get it right.

5: Los Angeles Rams

The Rams were one play away from hosting the Seahawks in the NFC Championship game instead of traveling to Seattle. Then they were a play or two away from beating the Seahawks for a shot at a Super Bowl anyway. Those two were far and away the best teams in the league last year, and the Rams moved like a team that knows they’re reaching the end of a Super Bowl window — at least in part.

Thanks to a draft-day trade in 2025, Los Angeles had an extra first-round pick in 2026. Top to bottom, there was only one position at which the Rams were subpar last season: cornerback. Knowing this, they flipped the No. 29 overall pick (along with a few mid-round selections, as well) for two-time All-Pro CB Trent McDuffie from the Chiefs. A few days later, they signed CB Jaylen Watson, also formerly of the Chiefs, to a sizable contract to be their CB2. All of a sudden, what was clearly the biggest weakness on Los Angeles’ roster was a strength, one that could compete with almost any cornerback duo out there.

There wasn’t much else the Rams needed to do. Bringing back S Kamren Curl made a lot of sense, and the team is currently negotiating an extension with reigning MVP Matthew Stafford to make sure he sticks around for at least one more season. Beyond that, Los Angeles was already the favorite to win the Super Bowl next season. What more did they need to do?

Still, I was disappointed to see they didn’t approach the draft with that same level of urgency. Rams GM Les Snead said they treated the extra first-round pick they had, No. 13, as essentially a “bonus.” They shocked the NFL world on draft night by selecting Stafford’s presumed heir in Ty Simpson. No matter how good the Rams think Simpson will be, if all goes according to plan, he doesn’t play a single meaningful snap for the team in 2026. That’s not maximizing their assets.

That logic also doesn’t make a ton of sense. Yes, the Rams had an “extra” pick, much higher than they’ll be picking with their own selections in the coming drafts (assuming Los Angeles remains a playoff team, of course). But they still had it. In fact, they traded out of the first round in 2025 to pick up that “extra” selection. The opportunity cost of adding Simpson meant passing on clearly superior talents such as ED Rueben Bain Jr., WR Makai Lemon and G Olaivavega Ioane. Any of those players could have been major contributors to a Super Bowl championship right away. They aren’t quarterbacks, but if Los Angeles falls short once again, that pick will be questioned.

That said, the Rams made some key additions that positioned them as the clear front-runners for the Super Bowl this season. That makes them deserving of a place on this list.