Winners and Losers From the 2025 NFL Season: Second-Chance Quarterbacks Triumphed

Sam Darnold was the biggest winner of the 2025 season after proving all of his critics wrong with a Lombardi Trophy.

Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said it drove him crazy hearing all the criticism directed toward Darnold. That could help explain why Macdonald and GM John Schneider made sure to give Darnold one of the best surroundings in the NFL.

Perhaps the Bengals and Cowboys can take some notes from the Seahawks on how to build a quality roster for their respective quarterbacks. Then again, it doesn’t help that Joe Burrow and Dak Prescott are both making more than $55 million annually, and have hefty cap numbers.

With the Seahawks winning Super Bowl LX, teams might follow the blueprint they set for building well-rounded rosters.

Here are our winners and losers from the 2025 season.

Winners

Seahawks GM John Schneider and head coach Mike Macdonald

Schneider noticed his team was being left behind by the Rams and 49ers in the NFC West and made the necessary moves to escape the mediocre cycle—a purgatory that has vexed many teams.

The Steelers, Cowboys, Bengals and many other teams are currently trapped in this cycle, which doesn’t allow for true Super Bowl contention. But Schneider noticed how stagnant the Seahawks had become under coach Pete Carroll and made the difficult decision to fire one of the most successful coaches in franchise history.

At the time, it didn’t seem right that Schneider got a pass and Carroll didn’t, when the team was struggling to hit on draft picks. But Schneider made the most of the extra opportunity and was wise to think outside the box with the hire of a defensive-minded coach, Macdonald, whose fresh ideas and outlook have aided Schneider’s personnel decisions over the past two seasons.

This new partnership hasn’t gotten much wrong and has been quick to react whenever results haven’t been up to par. It’s been the opposite of those final years with Carroll.

Complacency can be a scary place, and the Seahawks don’t appear to have plans of going back any time soon.

Mid-tier quarterbacks

Darnold winning the Super Bowl could shift how teams divvy up resources throughout the roster.

Middling first-round quarterbacks bouncing back with a team other than the one that drafted them isn’t new. But mid-tier quarterbacks have been Plan B for teams in need. Now, we might see more teams prioritizing balanced rosters and going after quarterbacks who don’t command expensive contracts that eat up the bulk of the salary cap.

This is good news for the college prospects who don’t have first-round potential, but could go in the back end of the first round to a team with a strong roster in place. It may even be good news for Tua Tagovailoa and Kyler Murray if they are released, or their current teams take on a bulk of their contracts to execute a trade. One of those quarterbacks could flourish with the Vikings or Colts if Daniel Jones isn’t ready in time for the 2026 season after tearing his Achilles tendon in December.

As for the downside, the quarterback market might have taken a hit after what Darnold did, but the developmental plans and surroundings could improve for signal-callers in the coming years.

Elite defenses

While working on my future 100 list, I realized that there wasn’t a dominant individual season from a defensive tackle this year. Chris Jones regressed, and Jalen Carter didn’t take the step forward many expected.

But depth on the interior of defensive lines was vital in 2025. Just look at the teams that made the Super Bowl. The Seahawks had Leonard Williams, DeMarcus Lawrence and Byron Murphy II, while the Patriots countered with Milton Williams, Christian Barmore and Khyiris Tonga.

The best defenses in the league had depth in every phase, demonstrating the resources teams have invested in that side of the ball over the past four seasons. The Texans, Broncos, Chargers and Eagles also had dominant defenses, and all advanced to the postseason. It was all about defense in 2025.

NFL’s Bad Bunny bet

The NFL became the most powerful and lucrative sports league in the world partly by embracing fantasy football and sports betting.

Now they’re aiming to stay ahead of the curve by reaching more fans outside of the United States. American football isn’t close to being a global sport, but the seeds have been planted with the NFL increasing its international matchups next year, hosting games in England, Spain, Australia, France, Brazil, Germany and Mexico.

But the NFL’s best move in growing the sport was tabbing Bad Bunny for the Super Bowl halftime show. His performance delivered monster TV ratings and high social media engagement worldwide.

Bad Bunny was good for business, even if it meant annoying some fans who aren’t fond of his music. Odds are those angry fans will still be watching NFL games next season, along with the many new fans gained from Bad Bunny’s sensational performance.

Bad Bunny's halftime show drew eye-popping ratings. | Jamie Schwaberow/Sports Illustrated

NFL’s parity concept

The best place to be in the NFL is atop the standings. And the second-best place to be is at the bottom of the standings.

With the league rewarding struggling teams with better draft picks and easier schedules, new teams are consistently advancing to the postseason. That kind of unpredictability is what makes the NFL exciting.

You never know when it could be your favorite team’s year. Which is true, even for Raiders fans, who could be watching Fernando Mendoza starting games for them next year after the team gained the No. 1 pick in the draft.

Not many expected to see the Seahawks and Patriots in the Super Bowl. Four new teams were playing on championship Sunday, and there were seven new division winners. It seemed like NFL fans enjoyed the postseason just fine without the Chiefs involved, for a change.

Losers

Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell

Kevin O’Connell scored a rare power struggle victory for coaches after the Vikings decided to keep him over GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.

But the pressure is on O’Connell to produce his first postseason win as a head coach, and his reputation as a quarterback whisperer took a massive hit with the poor results from J.J. McCarthy in his first season as the starting signal-caller.

Now that Adofo-Mensah is gone, it’s on O’Connell to make it work with McCarthy or find a quality quarterback this offseason to help take some pressure off in 2026. With Darnold winning the Super Bowl after leaving the Vikings, O’Connell might be starting the season on the hot seat.

Hall of Fame voters

Plain and simple, the voters overthought it when they didn’t vote Bill Belichick into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The system is broken, but my biggest issue is the number of voters who care about whether a candidate was nice to them during their career. They weren’t asked to be the moral police. This happened to Terrell Owens, who was forced to wait a year because he didn’t find a job in the media after his career to repair his image. It’s gotten too personal for the voters.

Belichick has his flaws, like Spygate, but there’s no doubt he was one of the most influential figures the game has ever seen. It really shouldn’t be this hard.

Offensive-minded teams

The Bengals nearly threw a parade after locking down wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins with contract extensions before the 2025 season.

But they again ignored the defensive side, and now Burrow has gone three consecutive seasons without making the playoffs.

The Cowboys had an elite edge rusher in Micah Parsons, but traded him to the Packers and were forced to watch Prescott lose several high-scoring games with the receiving tandem of CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens. Maybe Dallas should consider letting Pickens walk in free agency, since the Super Bowl teams had only one wide receiver making north of $20 million this season. That was Stefon Diggs, who was essentially playing on a one-year deal with the Patriots. New England has the option to cut him this offseason to save $16.8 million against the cap.

Plus, the Seahawks proved that you don’t need two star receivers to win a Super Bowl.

Close-minded teams that ignore minority coaches

I’m tired of writing about this after every coaching cycle. There were 10 head coaching vacancies and only one minority was hired (Robert Saleh) and zero Black coaches.

The numbers are even sadder for coordinator positions. The Rooney rule isn’t working and the draft incentives aren’t creating much change. NFL decision-makers need to stop being so close-minded when it comes to coaching hires.

NFL officials

Bad officiating affected too many games this season, including the divisional playoff game between the Broncos and Bills.

But maybe changes are on the horizon after reports emerged of the league aiming to improve in-game officiating by pushing for accountability and a performance-based model for its referees. It’s tough to see the NFL including this in the next collective bargaining agreement with the referees, but at least there’s some acknowledgement of this growing issue.