Every NFL team may fancy itself as a contender during this portion of the offseason, but it won’t be long before some of those summer hopes fade into fall miseries.
Teams dreaming of lifting the Lombardi Trophy during July’s training camps can soon suffer nightmares when sitting several games below .500 ahead of the November 4 trade deadline.
Whether marquee free-agent signings didn’t live up to lofty expectations, early-round rookies struggled with the transition to the pro game, promising coaching hires failed to inspire their players or injuries ravaged the roster, these hopefuls will quickly find themselves scrambling to offload veterans, dump salary and add draft capital to improve their chances of getting things right in 2026.
Squads off to strong starts will swoop in by offering up picks and prospects for proven veterans who can bolster their championship aspirations.
Although the buyers will likely be the teams left standing and getting the most attention at the end of a long season, let’s instead take a closer look at the teams that might find themselves on the selling end of this relationship.
