Kevin SeifertFeb 10, 2026, 06:00 AM ETCloseKevin Seifert is a staff writer who covers the Minnesota Vikings and the NFL at ESPN. Kevin has covered the NFL for over 20 years, joining ESPN in 2008. He was previously a beat reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Washington Times. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia.Follow on XMultiple Authors
Peter Schrager, Stephen A. not sold on Patriots as AFC favorites next season (1:53)Peter Schrager and Stephen A. Smith agree the Patriots should not be viewed as the AFC favorites entering next season. (1:53)
Is an 18-game season linked to the international schedule?
Now begins the process of building the Super Bowl LXI champions through an offseason that will be characterized, in part, by the usual imbalance of available quarterbacks relative to demand. Nearly a third of the NFL could be seeking a new quarterback this offseason, but the 2026 draft is projected to be particularly light at the position, and no stars are looming in free agency.
Off the field, the NFL will need to reconcile the concussion rate on its redesigned kickoff and also consider whether to empower replay officials with the authority to throw flags in certain situations.
Let’s take a closer look at how the 2026 offseason will shape up for its teams, players and league decision-makers.
Based on age alone, at least two likely Hall of Fame players are candidates: quarterback Aaron Rodgers and tight end Travis Kelce. (Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, 38, said last week that he plans to play in 2026.)
Rodgers, 42, did not commit either way after the Pittsburgh Steelers’ wild-card playoff loss, but it’s worth noting that the Steelers hired his former Green Bay Packers coach — Mike McCarthy — after Mike Tomlin’s resignation. Kelce, 36, said he would spend some time after the season talking to his family before deciding whether to return to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Rodgers’ decision will be one of the first dominoes to fall on what is a relatively thin group of free agent quarterbacks.
At least six and up to 10 teams will be seeking a starting-caliber quarterback this season, whether it is the Las Vegas Raiders, who hold the No. 1 pick, or the Minnesota Vikings, who want competition for J.J. McCarthy.
The Raiders will almost certainly draft Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza with the No. 1 pick, but the rest of the teams will gauge their options via free agency or trades.
The top pending free agents include Rodgers, Daniel Jones, Malik Willis, Gardner Minshew and Jimmy Garoppolo. If Rodgers plays in 2026, it seems likely it would be for the Steelers. The Colts have expressed strong interest in bringing back Jones, who tore his right Achilles tendon in Week 14. Two veteran quarterbacks under contract, the Raiders’ Geno Smith and the Atlanta Falcons’ Kirk Cousins, are candidates to be released.
Though Mendoza is the clear top pick in the draft, the rest of the quarterback class is tough to parse. In his recent mock draft of Rounds 1 and 2, ESPN’s Matt Miller included only two passers: Mendoza and Alabama’s Ty Simpson, whom he had going to the New York Jets in the middle of the second round.
Along with Mendoza, the top-five players on Mel Kiper Jr.’s first big board of the draft season included two linebackers (Ohio State’s Arvell Reese and Texas Tech’s David Bailey), one running back (Notre Dame’s Jeremiyah Love) and one receiver (Ohio State’s Carnell Tate).
In addition to the quarterbacks, several other veterans could be available via trade. Atop the list is Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby, whose 2025 season ended early because of a torn right meniscus. Crosby, 28, might not want to go through another rebuilding process with the Raiders, who recently hired their fourth coach in the past four seasons.
Other players to watch include Philadelphia Eagles receiver A.J. Brown, Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill and Buffalo Bills receiver Keon Coleman.
At this time of the year, it’s hard to know what the free agent class will look like. One way or another, through the franchise tag or contract extensions, many players whose contracts are expiring will remain with their current team by the time free agency begins.
Running back: Bijan Robinson (Falcons), Jahmyr Gibbs (Lions), De’Von Achane (Dolphins), Chase Brown (Bengals)
Receiver: Jaxon Smith-Njigba (Seahawks), Zay Flowers (Ravens), Jordan Addison (Vikings), Puka Nacua (Rams)
Secondary: Devon Witherspoon (Seahawks), Christian Gonzalez (Patriots), Brian Branch (Lions), Joey Porter Jr. (Steelers)
Nearly a third of NFL coaches have been replaced, a total of 10. When the dust settles, however, a bigger trend will emerge.
Coinciding with that turnover, nearly two-thirds of teams (21) will have a new offensive coordinator. For comparison, there are 13 new defensive coordinators in 2026.
Not all of the offensive coordinators will have playcalling duties, but 16 teams will have new playcallers via a change at offensive coordinator or head coach. In other words, half of the league’s teams will be revamping their offenses at some level. That increases the chances for new schemes, or unique applications of existing schemes, in a way that will make the 2026 season a bit less predictable than it otherwise would have been.
Of those 10 new head coaches, one comes from a minority background — the Tennessee Titans’ Robert Saleh. That leaves the NFL, whose players are roughly 54% Black, with three Black head coaches: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Todd Bowles, the Houston Texans’ DeMeco Ryans and the Jets’ Aaron Glenn.
That outcome coincided with the NFL’s decision to put its annual Accelerator program, designed to connect diverse candidates directly with league owners and decision-makers, on hiatus in 2025. The league plans to bring back the program in some form this year, and Goodell stressed this month his commitment to labor diversity through the Rooney Rule. But that philosophical pledge did not match outcomes during the 2026 cycle.
“There’s got to be more steps,” Goodell said. “So, we’re reevaluating everything we’re doing … including every aspect of our policies and our programs to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow, rather than yesterday.”
The NFL Players Association has yet to name a permanent replacement for executive director Lloyd Howell, who resigned last summer. David White has been serving in the interim since then, and NFLPA president Jalen Reeves-Maybin said the union is continuing to work with a search committee to source candidates. White was a finalist when Howell was named to the job in 2023, but White has not yet been informed if he is a candidate during this round, Reeves-Maybin said.
White said earlier this month that the union has “stabilized the operations” and has been “strengthening our foundation.” But it almost goes without saying that the NFLPA needs a permanent leadership structure before moving forward on the biggest issues it faces, from the potential of an 18-game season to collective bargaining negotiations and player health and safety.
When the kickoff return rate spiked to nearly 80% early in the season, NFL officiating rules analyst Walt Anderson declared the multiyear project to revive the play as “mission accomplished.” After years of high touchback rates, the league found a set of rules that incentivized teams to kick returnable balls and for the receiving team to do just that. The league rate for the season landed at 74.5%.
But the second part of the project was to ensure a low concussion rate, an outcome that remained in doubt after the end of the 2025 season.
Said Jeff Miller, the NFL’s executive vice president overseeing health and safety: “As we said when we first introduced this play, we were going to learn a lot. And we are in the process of learning a lot, both on the game-play side, as well as on the health and safety side to better understand it.”
But after several high-profile misses on rules related to player safety, particularly hits to the head and face masks of quarterbacks, a campaign is underway to change owners’ minds.
“If there’s an obvious error, we need to be able to fix it,” Goodell said. “And I think technology can help that.”
Financial penalties can change tackling behaviors over time, but meanwhile, teams don’t want obvious hip-drop tackles to affect the outcome of games.
One former coach and one current coach have active litigation against the NFL that, in different ways, is attempting to override the league’s in-house arbitration process. The league will continue to contend with both cases this offseason.
Generally speaking, NFL contracts call for work disputes to be settled through that process, not the courts. But longtime coach Jon Gruden, who resigned as the Raiders coach in 2021, has convinced a Nevada court to consider a lawsuit that accuses the NFL and Goodell of attempting to destroy his career by leaking private emails. Gruden’s attorneys are seeking testimony from Goodell and multiple owners.
Meanwhile, Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores is fighting to keep his dispute with the league and its owners over hiring practices in court. Flores’ lawsuit dates back to his firing as the Dolphins’ coach after the 2021 season and his contention that some teams engaged in “sham” interviews as he sought another job in the weeks after.
Even after NFL owners nearly banned it — and some league officials promised to try again in the near future — a handful of teams continued using a steady diet of the specialty short-yardage play. Overall, there were slightly more tush push plays in 2025 (112) than in 2024 (101).
The Eagles (27) and Bills (17) continued to account for much of the trend, but other teams began experimenting with using tight ends rather than quarterbacks to take the snap, most notably the Steelers and Seattle Seahawks.
There have been no immediate clues on whether owners will revisit the issue during their scheduled meetings in March and May. It was slightly less effective in 2025, converting first downs at a rate of 76.8% compared with an 82% rate from 2022 to 2024, but that isn’t likely to be enough of a drop for teams to stop using it on their own.