The Seattle Seahawks emerged the ultimate winner of the 2025 NFL season, but other teams, players and personnel scored some moderate victories of their own.
Only one team typically emerges happy from any given NFL season, as that squad gets to hoist the Lombardi Trophy and enter the offseason as the No. 32 team in the NFL draft order. But not every team enters every season as contenders.
Some are looking to build a foundation, hoping victories will come, as the Tennessee Titans did entering 2025. Of course: man plans and the football gods laugh.
Others enter the season with Super Bowl-or-bust expectations – and end up with a big-time bust instead, as the Buffalo Bills unfortunately found out this season.
There are plenty of winners and losers for any such NFL season. USA TODAY Sports’ NFL experts weigh in on who is the biggest winner and the biggest loser from 2025 below.
Winner: John Schneider
What’s the common denominator between the 2013 Seattle Seahawks, the first team in franchise history to capture the Lombardi Trophy, and the 2025 Seahawks? It wasn’t Pete Carroll. Or Russell Wilson. Or the Legion of Boom … or any player on Seattle’s current roster for that matter. It wasn’t even former owner Paul Allen, who died in 2018. No, the correct answer is GM John Schneider.
Two years ago, he had the foresight to hire defensive-minded head coach Mike Macdonald to combat an offense-centric division. In the past four drafts alone, Schneider has imported starters like G Grey Zabel, S Nick Emmanwori, DT Byron Murphy, TE AJ Barner, DB Devon Witherspoon, WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba, LT Charles Cross and RB Kenneth Walker III, Super Bowl 60’s MVP, among many others. How about the trade deadline deal in November for WR/KR Rashid Shaheed?
But Schneider’s master strokes may have come last March, when he got rid of QB Geno Smith and WR DK Metcalf and brought in WR Cooper Kupp and QB Sam Darnold – hugely important cultural fits and, in Darnold’s case, a massive positional upgrade. Not only are the new-look Seahawks now Super Bowl champions, they appear set up to contend for years to come. Win one more, and maybe Schneider supplants Bo Duke atop your search engine of choice. – Nate Davis
Winner: Sam Darnold
No player has changed their public perception more than Darnold over the last two seasons. He went from draft bust to Pro Bowler to Super Bowl champion. Darnold’s rise from a disappointment early in his career to a Super Bowl champion is a lesson for us all, especially NFL teams. A lot of times, teams give up on quarterbacks prematurely. Additionally, the surrounding circumstances and the coaching staff’s ability to develop quarterbacks greatly affect a QB’s success. We’re quick to place the blame on underperforming QBs, but what about the coaching staff and the environment they’re in? – Tyler Dragon
Winner: Matthew Stafford
Look, picking a non-Sam Darnold or Seahawks winner is hard. Plenty of guys had great seasons, but most of them ended bitterly with playoff losses.
That’s certainly true of Stafford, whose Los Angeles Rams came up just short of beating the Seahawks in the NFC championship game. Still, the veteran quarterback enjoyed the best season of his career in 2025, leading the NFL in both passing yards (4,707) and passing touchdowns (46) while completing 65% of his passes and tossing just eight interceptions.
Stafford’s elite-level performance helped him edge New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye to earn his first NFL MVP award. The race was the closest since Steve McNair and Peyton Manning were named co-MVPs in 2003; Stafford bested Maye by a count of 366 points to 361 and earned just one more first-place vote than his 23-year-old counterpart.
That MVP award could go a long way when it eventually comes time to discuss Stafford’s Hall of Fame credentials. He now has both an MVP and a Super Bowl win which, when coupled with his top-10 career marks in passing yards and passing touchdowns, could go a long way toward earning him enshrinement in Canton.
And the best part for NFL fans? Stafford announced at the NFL Honors he will be back for another year in 2026 for his age-38 season. That will give the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft a chance to build upon his career-best season and perhaps get the Rams over the hump one more time before he calls it a career. – Jacob Camenker
Winner: Parity
It’s often said that anyone can win on any given Sunday in the NFL. While that has been true in the regular season, that hasn’t been the case in the postseason when the cream always rises to the top. Prior to Super Bowl 60, five of the last six Super Bowls featured the Kansas City Chiefs.
Of the top 10 preseason favorites to win the final game of the NFL season, five missed the playoffs, three made it to the divisional round and only the Rams got to the conference championships. Instead, it was the teams with the 19th (Seahawks) and 21st (Patriots) best odds of winning the Super Bowl that competed in it, even though neither made the playoffs in 2024.
Things change quickly and every team is one great offseason away from getting into the playoffs. From there, anything can happen. – Nick Brinkerhoff
Winner: Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba
Kubiak pushed the third-year wideout to the outside after he played 69% of his snaps from the slot in 2023 under OC Shane Waldron and 83.6% of his snaps inside under Grubb in 2024. Smith-Njigba’s average depth of target leapt from 6.4 yards in 2023 to 9.2 in 2024, then up to 11.7 in 2025 as Kubiak and the Seahawks allowed him to work all three levels of the field.
The result was massive success for Smith-Njigba and the Seahawks’ passing offense. Seattle finished fourth in the league with its 52.7% dropback success rate, and Smith-Njigba was the leading pass-catcher in the NFL with his 1,793 receiving yards. The Ohio State product was a unanimous first-team All-Pro selection for the first time, and he won the Offensive Player of the Year award at the NFL Honors show last week.
To make matters even better, Smith-Njigba’s third season ended with his first trip to the playoffs – and his first Super Bowl ring. His performance in the big game was a bit underwhelming – four catches for 27 yards – but it also came after an outstanding NFC championship performance that included 10 catches for 153 yards and a touchdown.
Another significant note about Smith-Njigba’s excellent season is that he timed it perfectly. Since he’s just completed his third NFL season, he’s eligible to negotiate an extension this offseason. Coming off the season he had, he’s in a great position to get his bag. – Jack McKessy
Winner: Jacksonville Jaguars
A new era in Duval is underway and has the potential to become one of the NFL’s most fruitful relationships for years to come. Jacksonville won the AFC South with a 13-4 record in its first season after hiring Liam Coen as head coach.
Last offseason, Jaguars owner Shad Khan decided to part ways with general manager Trent Baalke and reached out directly to Coen, who had previously been rumored to be uninterested in working with Baalke. Coen quickly accepted the role, bringing one of the league’s bright offensive minds on board to help turn around the fortunes of quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
Jacksonville then appointed James Gladstone as its general manager, making him the youngest (34) to hold that position in the league.
Coen was nominated for Coach of the Year, and Lawrence was an MVP finalist for the first time in his career. A tremendous turnaround, especially given the team’s 4-13 finish in 2024. Coen became the first rookie head coach in NFL history to win more than 12 games after taking over a team that had four or fewer wins the previous season.
Lawrence failed to live up to the lofty expectations in his first four seasons after some labeled him the best quarterback prospect since Andrew Luck. However, the 26-year-old delivered his best NFL season to date. He finished third in total touchdowns (38), fifth in passing touchdowns (29), sixth in passing yards (4,007), and tied for second in rushing touchdowns (9).
Jacksonville’s defense finished third in expected points added (EPA) per play allowed in 2025, even without their two-way star rookie, Travis Hunter, for a significant portion of the season. In addition to Hunter, Lawrence has a talented supporting cast, including Brian Thomas Jr., Jakobi Meyers, Parker Washington, and Brenton Strange.
The Jaguars will retain highly sought-after Offensive Coordinator Grant Udinski and Defensive Coordinator Anthony Campanile for the 2026 season, solidifying the team’s status as a legitimate contender. The championship window for the Jaguars is wide open. – Tom Viera
Loser: Jerry Jones
Given the way the team generally responded to rookie head coach Brian Schottenheimer, you’d probably have to admit promoting the former offensive coordinator to replace Mike McCarthy last year was probably a good move. Not a good move, in case you forgot: RB Rico Dowdle led Dallas in rushing in 2024 … and didn’t get even a low-ball offer to re-sign in 2025. The Cowboys got a lot of production out of WR George Pickens, whom Jones traded for last spring, but will he even be on the roster in 2026? DE Micah Parsons, a generational pass rusher, certainly won’t be – Jones stripping him from ousted coordinator Matt Eberflus’ defense before making deals for DT Quinnen Williams and LB Logan Wilson – all so the Cowboys could win seven games. Jones freely admits that much of his rhetoric maintains the relevance of America’s Team from an entertainment perspective … just not sure how entertained its fans ultimately were by the on-field product in 2025. – Nate Davis
Loser: Baltimore Ravens
The Ravens were by far the most disappointing team in the NFL this season. Baltimore went from my preseason Super Bowl 60 pick to not making the playoffs at all. The Ravens had a Super Bowl-caliber roster that drastically underperformed. Baltimore started 1-5, Lamar Jackson battled injuries throughout the season and they had the worst pass defense in the AFC. As a consequence, John Harbaugh was given a pink slip. Maybe Harbaugh’s message wasn’t resonating with the team anymore. But Harbaugh didn’t miss a game-winning field goal with a chance to clinch a playoff berth, didn’t allow roughly 250 passing yards per game and didn’t have an AFC-most 12 lost fumbles. It was a disastrous year all around for the Ravens. – Tyler Dragon
Loser: Tennessee Titans
The Titans decided they would be better off without Mike Vrabel following the 2023 NFL season. They hired Brian Callahan to usher in a new era, but he didn’t even last a season and a half in Nashville.
The Titans went just 3-14 in Callahan’s first season and started the 2025 season 1-5 before deciding to move on from him. In total, he posted a .174 winning percentage during his time in Tennessee, marking the 10th-worst winning percentage all-time by an individual to coach at least 20 NFL games.
Making matters worse for the Titans, they watched Vrabel lead the Patriots to a 10-win improvement and an appearance in Super Bowl 60 in his first season in New England. He won the NFL Coach of the Year Award, which served as a bitter reminder of the talent Tennessee gave up on after firing him.
The Titans had a small silver lining, as quarterback Cam Ward made strides near the end of his rookie season. Still, the team seems more likely to be chasing the success it had under Vrabel as it looks to build up around the talented, young signal-caller.
And Tennessee’s decision to hire Robert Saleh – who, like Vrabel, is an energetic, defensive-minded coach known as a culture-builder – may be a direct sign that the organization is at least slightly rueing its decision to end the Vrabel era when it did. – Jacob Camenker
Loser: Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen
All the stars finally aligned for Allen and the Bills didn’t get the job done. Patrick Mahomes wasn’t in his way this year. Lamar Jackson wasn’t there either. The Bills had the best quarterback in an AFC that was weak, to be brutally honest, or largely unproven, if you want to be nice.
He couldn’t get the Bills over the finish line in Denver during the divisional round, sending Buffalo to another long offseason, and now the Bills appear to be making changes for the sake of making changes – evidenced by the promotion of Joe Brady to head coach after firing Sean McDermott.
Allen and co. will believe there are better days ahead and maybe that’s true, but it’s hard not to wonder if he’s just the next great athlete to be caught in the wrong era. Maybe he’s more Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers than Tom Brady and Mahomes. – Nick Brinkerhoff
Loser: Minnesota Vikings
Minnesota appeared to fall for the old sunk-cost fallacy when it let quarterback Sam Darnold walk last offseason. The Vikings had just drafted J.J. McCarthy with a top-10 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. As McCarthy missed his entire rookie season with a knee injury he suffered in the preseason last year, Darnold led the Vikings on a 14-win campaign before losing in the wild-card round of the playoffs. Rather than try to run things back with Darnold, who was hitting free agency, Minnesota opted to see what they had in McCarthy in 2025.
Things fell apart quickly. McCarthy got hurt again, and when he returned, the second-year was just… fine. He often took too long to make throwing decisions, made more than a handful of turnover-worthy plays and took too many sacks.
It would not have been such a bad year for McCarthy and the Vikings if they hadn’t had to see what Darnold was doing with his new team, the Seattle Seahawks. The former Vikings quarterback threw for 4,000 yards and won 14 games for a second season in a row before helping lead Seattle to a Super Bowl title.
The future is murky in Minnesota as well after the team fired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah in late January. Executive vice president of football operations Rob Brzezinski will be the head of the team’s decision-making until after the draft, when the Vikings can conduct a search for a GM replacement. Reporting in the wake of Adofo-Mensah’s firing points to a variety of reasons for why the team decided to part ways with their ex-GM, but the timing of the decision – days after Darnold and the Seahawks won an NFC title – was notable. – Jack McKessy
Loser: Vikings WR Justin Jefferson
How can arguably the best wide receiver in the NFL be considered the biggest loser? It all ties back to Sam Darnold’s success in 2025. The Minnesota Vikings let Darnold walk in free agency and decided to rely on their 2024 first-round pick, J.J. McCarthy, as their starting quarterback.
In a conversation with USA TODAY Sports after the season, Justin Jefferson expressed his belief that things would have turned out differently in Minnesota if the Vikings had kept Darnold.
‘Everyone knows the difficulty of the quarterback position this year, how we were dealt it,’ Jefferson told USA TODAY Sports. ‘But having a quarterback that already had a season under his belt with us, knew the plays, knew the playbook, knew the players, throwing to me, Jordan Addison, T.J. Hockenson, all these guys, I definitely feel like we would have done better.’
The two-time All-Pro struggled to find his footing, but it’s commendable that he still managed to catch 84 passes on 141 targets for 1,048 yards and two touchdowns, all of which were career lows. His previous career lows in a healthy season were 88 receptions for 1,400 yards and seven touchdowns as a rookie.
The Vikings used three different quarterbacks throughout the 2025 season, as McCarthy was limited to just 10 games. The others: Carson Wentz and Max Brosmer.
McCarthy’s struggles were evident, ranking 34th in EPA per dropback (-0.34), completing only 57.6% of his passes, amassing 1,632 yards with 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Meanwhile, Darnold threw for 4,048 yards, while his top target, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, earned the 2025 Offensive Player of the Year honors, leading the league with 1,793 receiving yards, 119 receptions, and 10 touchdowns.