Every single NFL season comes with expectations… some get met, some get exceeded, and some… well, some crash and burn so spectacularly that you can’t help but stare at the wreckage.

The 2025 season had no shortage of those. We saw dynasties crumble, quarterbacks implode, front offices make baffling decisions, and injuries decimate rosters in ways that felt almost cruel. From the biggest contract disasters to rookie records evaporating into thin air… this year had it all.

So let’s get into it. Here are the ten biggest disappointments from the 2025 NFL season.

Which players and teams were a huge disappointment this NFL season?

Kansas City Chiefs

Yup… we gotta start here.

The Chiefs dynasty didn’t just hit a speed bump in the 2025 NFL season… it drove off a cliff. For the first time since 2012, Kansas City finished with a losing record at 6 and 11. 

For the first time since 2015, they didn’t win the AFC West. And their ten-year playoff streak… the second-longest in NFL history… came to a screeching halt.

Now here’s the thing that gets lost in all of this. Patrick Mahomes tore his ACL and LCL in Week 15 against the Chargers, and yeah, that was devastating. But the team was already 6 and 8 when it happened. They were already right on the brink of being eliminated from playoff contention. 

The injury didn’t cause the collapse… it just put an exclamation point on it… one that will likely linger into next year.

Before going down, Mahomes was struggling too… the future Hall of Famer was posting career lows across the board. A 62.7 completion percentage. 22 touchdowns against 11 interceptions. An 89.5 passer rating that would’ve had people questioning any other quarterback in the league.

Coming off that Super Bowl 59 loss to the Eagles… you could sense something was different. 

Turns out it was. The dynasty is officially over… or at least on pause.

We’ll see if Mahomes and Reid have a second act in them!

Tua Tagovailoa, QB, Miami Dolphins

Remember when Miami made Tua the highest-paid player in franchise history? Four years, $ 212 million, $ 167 million guaranteed… signed in July of 2024.

Yeah… about that.

The 2025 NFL season was an absolute disaster in South Beach. Tua led the league in interceptions with 15. Not touchdowns… interceptions. He threw three picks in Week 6. Then did it again in Week 7. 

And it somehow got worse. 

By Week 16 against Pittsburgh, the Dolphins had seen enough. They benched their 212-million-dollar quarterback for Quinn Ewers, a seventh-round rookie. Ewers started the final three games of the season.

This, of course, resulted in Mike McDaniel getting fired after his second consecutive losing season, and now Miami is staring at 99.2 million in dead cap if they try to move on from Tua in 2026. 

Just a mess across the board… They’re stuck. Completely and utterly stuck with a quarterback who just put up one of the worst seasons in recent memory and straight up couldn’t stop turning the ball over.

Philadelphia Eagles Offense

Sad to say it, but… things got ugly in Philly this season… 

The Eagles were on top of the football world, and they were supposed to run it back this season… 

In fact, there were a number of analysts who thought they would be even better. 

Then—Kevin Patullo happened. The new offensive coordinator came in and… simplified everything. Stripped away the dynamics that made the 2024 Eagles one of the most frightening offenses in football. 

Suddenly, A.J. Brown wasn’t running the routes that got him open, Jalen Hurts wasn’t making the same reads, and Saquon Barkley was just another running back.

The whole thing just felt… off.

To make matters worse, they got bounced in the playoffs by the 49ers… of all teams… who were catastrophically injured. 

Whatever happened in that building in 2025… it clearly wasn’t working. And now Philly has to figure out if they can put the pieces back together before Brown forces his way out of town.

Dallas Cowboys Defense

So Jerry decided to get rid of the best defensive player in football… and it went about as well as you’d expect.

Micah Parsons got traded to Green Bay in late August. Dallas got back Kenny Clark and two first-round picks in 2026 and 2027. Parsons got a new contract, making him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history at 47 million per year… and immediately started dominating. He had 12.5 sacks through 14 games and was sitting atop the Defensive Player of the Year odds before going out with an unfortunate injury.

Meanwhile, the Cowboys? They allowed 511 points… that’s 30.1 per game. Dead last in the NFL. They gave up 411.7 total yards per game. Dead last. Their third-down defense allowed a 53.2 conversion rate. You guessed it… dead last.

Here’s the kicker, though. Dallas actually had the second-best offense in the entire league. Completely wasted because their defense couldn’t stop anyone this NFL season.

Jerry’s squad finished 7 and 9 and 1, second in the NFC East… visibly held back by their porous defense.

All the while, Parsons wrecked games in green and gold while the Dallas D got torched. 

No wonder the trade criticism never stopped—those fans have a right to be disappointed.

Brandon Aiyuk, WR, San Francisco 49ers

This one is just… bizarre.

Brandon Aiyuk signed a four-year, $120 million contract in late August of 2024 after a prolonged holdout. Seven games later, he tore his ACL, MCL, and meniscus. Brutal, but those things happen. Players come back from knee injuries all the time.

Except Aiyuk never came back.

He played zero games in 2025. 

Not because he was still injured… not because he was suspended… he just never cleared. He got placed on the Reserve/Left Team list, which made him ineligible for the entire season. The 49ers voided around 27 million in 2026 guarantees after he apparently skipped rehab sessions.

Kyle Shanahan said it was “something I’ve never seen in 22 years of coaching.” GM John Lynch made Aiyuk’s future with the team even clearer… “It’s safe to say that he’s played his last snap with the Niners.”

Since signing that contract and ending his controversial holdout, San Francisco has paid Brandon Aiyuk 48.15 million. 

For that money, they got 25 receptions and 374 yards. That’s it. 

The strangest 120-million-dollar deal in NFL history might never produce another catch for the Niners.

San Francisco 49ers Injuries

Speaking of the Niners… Aiyuk wasn’t even their biggest injury problem. He was just one piece of a historically catastrophic 2025 NFL season.

San Francisco lost over 95 million dollars in adjusted annual value to injuries, the highest in the NFL by about 20 million. They had 20 players hit the reserve list at various points throughout the year.

Nick Bosa tore his ACL in Week 3 against the Cardinals. That’s 34 million in annual value, gone. Fred Warner broke his ankle in Week 6. There goes 21 million more. The icing on the cake came in the playoffs when George Kittle went down with a season-ending Achilles injury that might linger into next year.

It got so bad that the organization actually investigated a conspiracy theory about a nearby electrical substation potentially causing the injuries. 

That’s how desperate the situation has gotten in the Bay Area… When you’re looking into power lines as a possible explanation, you know the season has gone completely sideways.

The 49ers’ championship window didn’t close because of bad decisions… it slammed shut because they simply couldn’t stay healthy.

C.J. Stroud, QB, Houston Texans

The regression is real.

Remember 2023? C.J. Stroud came in and looked like a franchise-altering talent. Offensive Rookie of the Year. Electric. The future of the Texans for the next decade.

But this is Year 3 now… not Year 2, Year 3… and the numbers tell a concerning story. He finished with 3,041 yards, 19 touchdowns, and 8 interceptions in 14 games. Missed three games with a concussion. 

His yards per attempt dropped from 8.2 as a rookie to 7.2 this season. 

His touchdown-to-interception ratio, which was an absurd 4.6 as a rookie, has been falling ever since… I mean, the team borderline looked better with Davis Mills under center!

Then came the playoffs.

Houston made it to the Divisional Round and ran into the Patriots. Stroud went 20 for 47 with 212 yards, 1 touchdown, and 4 interceptions. Four. The Texans lost 28 to 16, and their young quarterback looked nothing like the guy who took the league by storm two years ago.

The question now is whether Year 1 was the peak… or if he can find that form again.

J.J. McCarthy, QB, Minnesota Vikings

This one stings for Vikings fans… because every single week, they were reminded of what could have been.

Minnesota let Sam Darnold walk after going 14 and 3 with him in 2024. They handed the keys to J.J. McCarthy, their 2024 first-round pick, who missed his entire rookie year with a torn meniscus. This was supposed to be his time.

Instead? McCarthy threw 12 interceptions against just 11 touchdowns. His interception rate of 6.3 percent was the worst in the NFL this season. And his passer rating sat at 57.9. His QBR… 33.9, ranking him 46th out of 58 qualifying quarterbacks. 

It was so bad that he only had two games all year with 200 or more passing yards.

To be fair, the injuries didn’t help either. A high ankle sprain cost him five games. A concussion. A hairline fracture in his throwing hand.

But that doesn’t change the fact that while all this was happening… Darnold went 14 and 3 with Seattle and earned the NFC’s number one seed.

Minnesota rallied in the second half of the season and finished 9 and 8, but missed the playoffs by half a game. Half a game. 

That disappointment in J.J. and the “what if” about keeping Darnold is going to haunt this franchise for a long time.

Pete Carroll, Las Vegas Raiders

Sometimes even legends can’t fix what’s truly broken.

Pete Carroll came out of retirement at 74 years old… making him the oldest head coach in NFL history… to take over a Raiders team that desperately needed direction. One year later, he’s gone.

Las Vegas finished 3 and 14, tying for the worst record in the NFL with the Cardinals, Titans, and Jets. More importantly, it was the worst record in the Raiders’ franchise history. 

They lost ten games in a row before finally snapping the streak in the season finale against a Chiefs team that was so spiritually decimated that they didn’t have a fighting chance.

Carroll became the first head coach fired after just one season since the Jets did it back in 1994. He was also the fifth Raiders head coach since 2021. That’s five coaches in four years. While symmetrical, probably not the kind of ending that he envisioned for his career.

Now, Tom Brady, the minority owner, is leading the search for a new coach. Carroll’s Super Bowl ring couldn’t save him from an impossible situation… and honestly, nobody should be surprised given how dysfunctional that Raiders organization has been in recent years.

Brian Thomas Jr., WR, Jacksonville Jaguars

Let’s end on one that isn’t completely doom and gloom… even if it was still disappointing.

Brian Thomas Jr. had a monster rookie season in 2024. 87 receptions. 1,282 yards. 10 touchdowns. All three were Jaguars rookie records—and by every measure, the kid looked like a superstar.

Then came Year 2—and out of nowhere, everything seemed to change… which was strange because his quarterback, the offense, and the team as a whole all improved.

But BTJ fell off a cliff.

His numbers dropped across the board to 48 catches, 707 yards, and just 2 touchdowns. 

That’s a very significant year-over-year decrease… 

His decline started early—through the first two weeks of the season, he had just 5 catches for 60 yards despite 19 targets, as the drop issues popped up during training camp and carried into games.

Some analysts have hypothesized that part of his issues were schematic. Jacksonville moved away from the iso-ball looks on the outside and started running more in-breaking routes. Thomas was still adjusting to it.

Coach Liam Coen made it clear he’s still a believer… and that the young wideout will 100 percent be a part of the team’s future. 

After all… Sophomore slumps happen to receivers all the time, and the talent is still there, so no need to sound the alarm just yet…  

But after that electric first year, 2025 was definitely not what anyone expected for Thomas.

Every single NFL season comes with expectations… some get met, some get exceeded, and some… well, some crash and burn so spectacularly that you can’t help but stare at the wreckage.

The 2025 season had no shortage of those. We saw dynasties crumble, quarterbacks implode, front offices make baffling decisions, and injuries decimate rosters in ways that felt almost cruel. From the biggest contract disasters to rookie records evaporating into thin air… this year had it all.

So let’s get into it. Here are the ten biggest disappointments from the 2025 NFL season.

Which players and teams were a huge disappointment this NFL season?

Kansas City Chiefs

Yup… we gotta start here.

The Chiefs dynasty didn’t just hit a speed bump in the 2025 NFL season… it drove off a cliff. For the first time since 2012, Kansas City finished with a losing record at 6 and 11. 

For the first time since 2015, they didn’t win the AFC West. And their ten-year playoff streak… the second-longest in NFL history… came to a screeching halt.

Now here’s the thing that gets lost in all of this. Patrick Mahomes tore his ACL and LCL in Week 15 against the Chargers, and yeah, that was devastating. But the team was already 6 and 8 when it happened. They were already right on the brink of being eliminated from playoff contention. 

The injury didn’t cause the collapse… it just put an exclamation point on it… one that will likely linger into next year.

Before going down, Mahomes was struggling too… the future Hall of Famer was posting career lows across the board. A 62.7 completion percentage. 22 touchdowns against 11 interceptions. An 89.5 passer rating that would’ve had people questioning any other quarterback in the league.

Coming off that Super Bowl 59 loss to the Eagles… you could sense something was different. 

Turns out it was. The dynasty is officially over… or at least on pause.

We’ll see if Mahomes and Reid have a second act in them!

Tua Tagovailoa, QB, Miami Dolphins

Remember when Miami made Tua the highest-paid player in franchise history? Four years, $ 212 million, $ 167 million guaranteed… signed in July of 2024.

Yeah… about that.

The 2025 NFL season was an absolute disaster in South Beach. Tua led the league in interceptions with 15. Not touchdowns… interceptions. He threw three picks in Week 6. Then did it again in Week 7. 

And it somehow got worse. 

By Week 16 against Pittsburgh, the Dolphins had seen enough. They benched their 212-million-dollar quarterback for Quinn Ewers, a seventh-round rookie. Ewers started the final three games of the season.

This, of course, resulted in Mike McDaniel getting fired after his second consecutive losing season, and now Miami is staring at 99.2 million in dead cap if they try to move on from Tua in 2026. 

Just a mess across the board… They’re stuck. Completely and utterly stuck with a quarterback who just put up one of the worst seasons in recent memory and straight up couldn’t stop turning the ball over.

Philadelphia Eagles Offense

Sad to say it, but… things got ugly in Philly this season… 

The Eagles were on top of the football world, and they were supposed to run it back this season… 

In fact, there were a number of analysts who thought they would be even better. 

Then—Kevin Patullo happened. The new offensive coordinator came in and… simplified everything. Stripped away the dynamics that made the 2024 Eagles one of the most frightening offenses in football. 

Suddenly, A.J. Brown wasn’t running the routes that got him open, Jalen Hurts wasn’t making the same reads, and Saquon Barkley was just another running back.

The whole thing just felt… off.

To make matters worse, they got bounced in the playoffs by the 49ers… of all teams… who were catastrophically injured. 

Whatever happened in that building in 2025… it clearly wasn’t working. And now Philly has to figure out if they can put the pieces back together before Brown forces his way out of town.

Dallas Cowboys Defense

So Jerry decided to get rid of the best defensive player in football… and it went about as well as you’d expect.

Micah Parsons got traded to Green Bay in late August. Dallas got back Kenny Clark and two first-round picks in 2026 and 2027. Parsons got a new contract, making him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history at 47 million per year… and immediately started dominating. He had 12.5 sacks through 14 games and was sitting atop the Defensive Player of the Year odds before going out with an unfortunate injury.

Meanwhile, the Cowboys? They allowed 511 points… that’s 30.1 per game. Dead last in the NFL. They gave up 411.7 total yards per game. Dead last. Their third-down defense allowed a 53.2 conversion rate. You guessed it… dead last.

Here’s the kicker, though. Dallas actually had the second-best offense in the entire league. Completely wasted because their defense couldn’t stop anyone this NFL season.

Jerry’s squad finished 7 and 9 and 1, second in the NFC East… visibly held back by their porous defense.

All the while, Parsons wrecked games in green and gold while the Dallas D got torched. 

No wonder the trade criticism never stopped—those fans have a right to be disappointed.

Brandon Aiyuk, WR, San Francisco 49ers

This one is just… bizarre.

Brandon Aiyuk signed a four-year, $120 million contract in late August of 2024 after a prolonged holdout. Seven games later, he tore his ACL, MCL, and meniscus. Brutal, but those things happen. Players come back from knee injuries all the time.

Except Aiyuk never came back.

He played zero games in 2025. 

Not because he was still injured… not because he was suspended… he just never cleared. He got placed on the Reserve/Left Team list, which made him ineligible for the entire season. The 49ers voided around 27 million in 2026 guarantees after he apparently skipped rehab sessions.

Kyle Shanahan said it was “something I’ve never seen in 22 years of coaching.” GM John Lynch made Aiyuk’s future with the team even clearer… “It’s safe to say that he’s played his last snap with the Niners.”

Since signing that contract and ending his controversial holdout, San Francisco has paid Brandon Aiyuk 48.15 million. 

For that money, they got 25 receptions and 374 yards. That’s it. 

The strangest 120-million-dollar deal in NFL history might never produce another catch for the Niners.

San Francisco 49ers Injuries

Speaking of the Niners… Aiyuk wasn’t even their biggest injury problem. He was just one piece of a historically catastrophic 2025 NFL season.

San Francisco lost over 95 million dollars in adjusted annual value to injuries, the highest in the NFL by about 20 million. They had 20 players hit the reserve list at various points throughout the year.

Nick Bosa tore his ACL in Week 3 against the Cardinals. That’s 34 million in annual value, gone. Fred Warner broke his ankle in Week 6. There goes 21 million more. The icing on the cake came in the playoffs when George Kittle went down with a season-ending Achilles injury that might linger into next year.

It got so bad that the organization actually investigated a conspiracy theory about a nearby electrical substation potentially causing the injuries. 

That’s how desperate the situation has gotten in the Bay Area… When you’re looking into power lines as a possible explanation, you know the season has gone completely sideways.

The 49ers’ championship window didn’t close because of bad decisions… it slammed shut because they simply couldn’t stay healthy.

C.J. Stroud, QB, Houston Texans

The regression is real.

Remember 2023? C.J. Stroud came in and looked like a franchise-altering talent. Offensive Rookie of the Year. Electric. The future of the Texans for the next decade.

But this is Year 3 now… not Year 2, Year 3… and the numbers tell a concerning story. He finished with 3,041 yards, 19 touchdowns, and 8 interceptions in 14 games. Missed three games with a concussion. 

His yards per attempt dropped from 8.2 as a rookie to 7.2 this season. 

His touchdown-to-interception ratio, which was an absurd 4.6 as a rookie, has been falling ever since… I mean, the team borderline looked better with Davis Mills under center!

Then came the playoffs.

Houston made it to the Divisional Round and ran into the Patriots. Stroud went 20 for 47 with 212 yards, 1 touchdown, and 4 interceptions. Four. The Texans lost 28 to 16, and their young quarterback looked nothing like the guy who took the league by storm two years ago.

The question now is whether Year 1 was the peak… or if he can find that form again.

J.J. McCarthy, QB, Minnesota Vikings

This one stings for Vikings fans… because every single week, they were reminded of what could have been.

Minnesota let Sam Darnold walk after going 14 and 3 with him in 2024. They handed the keys to J.J. McCarthy, their 2024 first-round pick, who missed his entire rookie year with a torn meniscus. This was supposed to be his time.

Instead? McCarthy threw 12 interceptions against just 11 touchdowns. His interception rate of 6.3 percent was the worst in the NFL this season. And his passer rating sat at 57.9. His QBR… 33.9, ranking him 46th out of 58 qualifying quarterbacks. 

It was so bad that he only had two games all year with 200 or more passing yards.

To be fair, the injuries didn’t help either. A high ankle sprain cost him five games. A concussion. A hairline fracture in his throwing hand.

But that doesn’t change the fact that while all this was happening… Darnold went 14 and 3 with Seattle and earned the NFC’s number one seed.

Minnesota rallied in the second half of the season and finished 9 and 8, but missed the playoffs by half a game. Half a game. 

That disappointment in J.J. and the “what if” about keeping Darnold is going to haunt this franchise for a long time.

Pete Carroll, Las Vegas Raiders

Sometimes even legends can’t fix what’s truly broken.

Pete Carroll came out of retirement at 74 years old… making him the oldest head coach in NFL history… to take over a Raiders team that desperately needed direction. One year later, he’s gone.

Las Vegas finished 3 and 14, tying for the worst record in the NFL with the Cardinals, Titans, and Jets. More importantly, it was the worst record in the Raiders’ franchise history. 

They lost ten games in a row before finally snapping the streak in the season finale against a Chiefs team that was so spiritually decimated that they didn’t have a fighting chance.

Carroll became the first head coach fired after just one season since the Jets did it back in 1994. He was also the fifth Raiders head coach since 2021. That’s five coaches in four years. While symmetrical, probably not the kind of ending that he envisioned for his career.

Now, Tom Brady, the minority owner, is leading the search for a new coach. Carroll’s Super Bowl ring couldn’t save him from an impossible situation… and honestly, nobody should be surprised given how dysfunctional that Raiders organization has been in recent years.

Brian Thomas Jr., WR, Jacksonville Jaguars

Let’s end on one that isn’t completely doom and gloom… even if it was still disappointing.

Brian Thomas Jr. had a monster rookie season in 2024. 87 receptions. 1,282 yards. 10 touchdowns. All three were Jaguars rookie records—and by every measure, the kid looked like a superstar.

Then came Year 2—and out of nowhere, everything seemed to change… which was strange because his quarterback, the offense, and the team as a whole all improved.

But BTJ fell off a cliff.

His numbers dropped across the board to 48 catches, 707 yards, and just 2 touchdowns. 

That’s a very significant year-over-year decrease… 

His decline started early—through the first two weeks of the season, he had just 5 catches for 60 yards despite 19 targets, as the drop issues popped up during training camp and carried into games.

Some analysts have hypothesized that part of his issues were schematic. Jacksonville moved away from the iso-ball looks on the outside and started running more in-breaking routes. Thomas was still adjusting to it.

Coach Liam Coen made it clear he’s still a believer… and that the young wideout will 100 percent be a part of the team’s future. 

After all… Sophomore slumps happen to receivers all the time, and the talent is still there, so no need to sound the alarm just yet…  

But after that electric first year, 2025 was definitely not what anyone expected for Thomas.