All 32 NFL Teams Most Disappointing Player From The 2025 Season
This article was originally published on Total Pro Sports.
There is one on every team… That guy who was supposed to deliver… and didn’t. Maybe it was injuries. Maybe it was regression. And maybe expectations were just too high. But when you look back at the 2025 season, every single NFL franchise has someone who let them down.
This isn’t about piling on… It’s just an honest assessment. Thirty-two teams, thirty-two disappointments.
Let’s get into it.
Who’s the most disappointing player for each NFL team this season?
Arizona Cardinals: Marvin Harrison Jr., WR
The generational prospect label is starting to feel heavy.
Marvin Harrison Jr. was the fourth overall pick. Ohio State royalty and the Son of a Hall of Famer—he was supposed to come in and immediately become a top-10 receiver. Instead, he has been nothing but a disappointment.
Atlanta Falcons: Michael Penix Jr., QB
Michael Penix Jr. entered the 2025 NFL season with real expectations. This was supposed to be the year he grabbed the keys to the franchise and justified Atlanta’s long-term bet at quarterback.
Instead, the season unraveled almost immediately.
Before the season-ending ACL tear shut things down, Penix looked overwhelmed far too often for a quarterback the Falcons were hoping to build around. Now Atlanta heads into another offseason without clarity at the most important position in football — and that’s about as disappointing as it gets.
Baltimore Ravens: Lamar Jackson, QB
Despite entering 2025 as the face of Baltimore’s Super Bowl hopes, Jackson and the Ravens instead endured a season that never quite clicked. Between nagging injuries, reduced mobility, and frustrating inconsistency as a passer, he never regained the MVP-level dominance fans have come to expect.
Baltimore limped to an 8-9 finish and missed the playoffs — the first time in his era that the Ravens failed to make the postseason.
Buffalo Bills: Keon Coleman, WR
Keon Coleman came into this NFL season as a second-year wideout the Bills thought could be the explosive outside threat to pair with Josh Allen.
Instead, it was nothing more than a steady slide into disappointment. Coleman’s numbers — roughly 38 catches for just over 400 yards and 4 touchdowns — landed him near the bottom in production among starting wideouts, and his future with the team is starting to be called into question.
Carolina Panthers: Chuba Hubbard, RB
Chuba Hubbard came off a career year and a fresh contract extension, yet his 2025 never lived up to the hype. Instead of being the power force in Carolina’s backfield, he battled a calf injury, missed games, and saw his snap share shrink as Rico Dowdle began taking over the lead role.
He finished with just 511 yards and one score—numbers that paled in comparison to his 1195 and 10 scores in 2024.
Chicago Bears: Jonah Jackson, OG
The $54.5 million guard started this NFL season looking completely lost.
Now, some of that narrative has softened as he’s played his snaps and the line as a whole has gelled, but the disappointment remains.
Jonah Jackson arrived in Chicago with a hefty contract and expectations that he’d be a stabilizing force up front after the Bears overhauled their interior line. Instead, the returns have been underwhelming.
For a guy Chicago invested serious money and roster capital into, the return so far has felt more question mark than sure thing.
Cincinnati Bengals: Shemar Stewart, DE
One hundred and twentieth out of 120.
The Bengals took Shemar Stewart 17th overall, hoping for immediate pass-rush help. What they got was the lowest-graded edge rusher in the entire NFL.
Fans and analysts alike were frustrated watching a physique built for chaos produce very little before his rookie campaign ultimately ended on injured reserve, leaving the Bengals still searching for the disruptive force they hoped he’d become.
Cleveland Browns: Jerry Jeudy, WR
From breakout to breakdown in one NFL season.
Jerry Jeudy had 1,229 yards in 2024, but just as the narrative was starting to shift around the former first-round pick, his production plummeted… 602 yards, 10 drops, and some of the worst advanced metrics qualified receivers in football.
Three different starting quarterbacks didn’t help the cause, but the lazy routes and poor attitude were on him.
Dallas Cowboys: Mazi Smith, DT
Mazi Smith entered 2025 with every excuse removed. Second year in the system. Better conditioning. A clear role in the middle of the Cowboys’ defensive line. But what Jerry got was more of the same—
He played just five games and barely produced before they shipped him out of town to New York… where he only played three games for the Jets!
Denver Broncos: Jahdae Barron, CB
Jahdae Barron was the best defensive back in college football, so people in the Mile High City were happy when the Broncos grabbed him 20th overall, but he’s barely been able to crack the lineup in the 2025 NFL season.
Denver says they’re developing him slowly. Protecting him from early failure. That’s one way to describe a first-round pick getting practice squad-level playing time…
Detroit Lions: Alim McNeill, DT
Look, the ACL tear in Week 15 of 2024 was brutal. Returning from that kind of injury is never easy. But when you’re the fourth-highest-paid interior defensive lineman in football at $24.25 million per year, the expectations don’t wait for you to get healthy. Ten games. One sack. And the dead cap is too high to move on through 2027.
Yikes.
Green Bay Packers: Aaron Banks, OG
The $77 million investment that never got healthy.
Aaron Banks signed a 4-year deal and immediately dealt with a back injury. Then a stinger. Then, more missed time. When he did suit up, the impact just wasn’t there—his run blocking grade was among the worst at his position.
Houston Texans: C.J. Stroud, QB
C.J. Stroud won Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2023. But Year 2 was a step back. And Year 3… well, it has been worse.
The guy couldn’t stop turning the ball over and looked like a shell of the player who lit the league on fire during his first season in the NFL with the Texans.
Indianapolis Colts: Samson Ebukam, DE
While there were, perhaps, more painful parts of the Colts season—like the ups and downs of the Daniel Jones experiment… It is hard not to look at Samson Ebukam as the most disappointing player from the squad.
He had 9.5 sacks in 2023 and looked like a foundational piece. Then came the torn Achilles in July 2024. Even with the injury, expectations were high with him returning in 2025, but he was limited to about 40 percent of snaps and managed just 2 sacks.
The pass rush was weak all season, and Ebukam’s return wasn’t the spark anyone hoped for.
Jacksonville Jaguars: Brian Thomas Jr., WR
Despite the Jaguars being much improved this season, Brian Thomas Jr. was a huge disappointment, especially after his massive rookie season in which he snagged 87 catches for 1282 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Then came Year 2: 48 catches. 707 yards. 2 touchdowns. And the magical connection with Trevor Lawrence was seemingly gone.
Kansas City Chiefs: Travis Kelce, TE
This felt like the season where time finally won. Travis Kelce entered 2025 as a future Hall of Famer still chasing championships — but the drop-off was impossible to ignore. The explosiveness wasn’t the same, the separation windows shrank, and for long stretches, he looked more human than at any point in his Chiefs career.
For a team that’s relied on Kelce as its offensive cheat code for nearly a decade, 2025 marked a clear shift. He wasn’t bad… but he wasn’t that guy anymore in the 2025 NFL season.
Las Vegas Raiders: Geno Smith, QB
The Geno Smith experiment in Sin City went just about as poorly as it could. He took fifty-five sacks. Tied for most in the league. Seventeen interceptions. Most in the league. And posted a 3 and 14 record.
Needless to say, when it was all over, the only positive was that the Raiders held the number one overall pick.
Los Angeles Chargers: Ladd McConkey, WR
This was the sophomore slump nobody saw coming.
Ladd McConkey finished 2024 on fire, and the hype coming into the 2025 NFL season was real…
Only, he didn’t deliver. Year 2 brought 360 fewer yards, and it seemed like defenses figured him out. The quick third-down targets that made him special were cut in half, and the explosive plays just weren’t there.
Los Angeles Rams: Jarquez Hunter, RB
Zero. That’s how many carries Jarquez Hunter had in 2025.
Granted, he was a fourth-round pick, but let’s not forget that the Rams traded up to draft him… and he had no rushing attempts all season. Not one!
That makes him one of only five drafted running backs who never touched the ball all year, largely because pass protection concerns buried him behind Kyren Williams and Blake Corum—and he didn’t have the playmaking ability to warrant any burn.
Have to think that Rams fans were bummed to have moved up for a running back… who never ran.
Miami Dolphins: Tua Tagovailoa, QB
The $212 million quarterback finished the year on the bench.
Tua Tagovailoa led the league with 15 interceptions. Then got benched for rookie Quinn Ewers. Then demoted to third string. Mike McDaniel was fired.
The biggest contract in franchise history… sitting on the sideline by December. That tells you everything.
Minnesota Vikings: J.J. McCarthy, QB
The heir apparent couldn’t seize the throne.
J.J. McCarthy missed all of 2024 with knee surgery. He returned in 2025 and threw 12 interceptions in 10 starts. A high ankle sprain cost him 5 more games.
And, of course, the icing on the cake for the Vikings and their fans is that Sam Darnold left for Seattle and went 14 and 3—and has the Seahawks looking like a real title contender.
Now, reports suggest Minnesota may bring in a veteran to push him next year. Not exactly a vote of confidence.
New England Patriots: Rhamondre Stevenson, RB
Three fumbles in three games to start the year really set the tone for Rhamondre Stevenson.
He ended up cleaning up his act a little bit, but saw a large portion of his carries rerouted to the dynamic rookie, TreyVeyon Henderson.
Stevenson, who came into the year expecting to be the guy, finished with just 603 yards on 130 carries, albeit with his team winning a ton of games along the way.
New Orleans Saints: Alvin Kamara, RB
This season proved that Alvin Kamara is on his last legs in the NFL
The shifty running back is now 30 years old, has averaged just 3.6 yards per carry, and missed six games.
It looks like the explosiveness that made him electric for all those years is gone.
The age curve, the cap hit, the knee… the Saints are staring at a cold reality. Kamara was one of the most dynamic players of his generation. That player is fading fast.
New York Giants: Dexter Lawrence II, DT
From emerging elite to afterthought.
Dexter Lawrence had 9 sacks through 7 games in 2024. Since then? Half a sack in 22 contests.
It seemed like the effects of that dislocated elbow lingered from late 2024 or something… Or maybe it was opposing offenses double-teaming him… It is hard to know.
One thing, however, is for certain: Lawrence was supposed to anchor the defense, and he clearly couldn’t.
New York Jets: Justin Fields, QB
You already know how this one ends.
Justin Fields got a nice $40 million contract and was named the starter only to have the Jets stumble out of the gate and render him completely unable to get up, as they finished 3 and 14.
You know when you end up on a QB carousel with Tyrod Taylor and Brady Cook, things are bad…
Now Fields is on his way out of town, and the second overall pick is incoming. What else is there to say? The cycle continues in New York.
Philadelphia Eagles: A.J. Brown, WR
The star receiver who checked out. A.J. Brown called his season “a shit show.” And he wasn’t wrong. Career-worst efficiency metrics across the board. A number of sideline altercations with Nick Sirianni that went viral.
Not to mention the critical drops in their playoff loss.
Hard to argue that Brown didn’t seem to lose motivation as the year went on.
All in all, the vibes were terrible—and it wouldn’t shock anyone to see these two sides part ways somehow this offseason.
Pittsburgh Steelers: Jonnu Smith, TE
There was a lot of excitement when the Steelers brought in Jonnu Smith to catch passes from Aaron Rodgers, but the results simply weren’t there.
He was near the bottom of the league in every major category at his position…
I guess that is what happens when 70 percent of your targets come behind the line of scrimmage.
I suppose some of that is coaching or scheme, but still, a hugely disappointing year for Smith.
San Francisco 49ers: Brandon Aiyuk, WR
How could we not call out the $120 million receiver who has been a ghost since he signed the big deal that ended his controversial holdout?
Brandon Aiyuk signed his extension in August 2024, and he has barely been on the field since.
Yes, the ACL tear was out of his control in 2024, but the 2025 NFL season has been a comedy of errors. He battled some injuries, but also missed meetings and declined team activities.
Now it seems clear that he is on his way out the door… and with good reason.
Seattle Seahawks: Cooper Kupp, WR
Obviously, Cooper Kupp is in the twilight of his career—and yes… he’s done some good things in the locker room from Seattle, but you have to think that the Seahawks front office was expecting a little bit more production when they brought in the former triple crown winner.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Bucky Irving, RB
This is a story of a breakout star who couldn’t stay on the field.
Bucky Irving had 1,514 yards from scrimmage as a rookie, and it felt like the future was bright. Then came the injuries—and he missed 7 straight games, which coincided with the demise of the Bucs’ season.
Hard to say that was merely a coincidence. The talent is still there, but durability is the question.
Tennessee Titans: L’Jarius Sneed, CB
The trade that keeps getting worse…
After bringing L’Jarius Sneed in from the Chiefs, Tennessee signed him to a 4-year, $76 million deal with $44 million guaranteed.
Year 1, he played just five games season since joining Tennessee… And everyone thought this could be a bounce-back year for the talented corner, but he ended up missing the entire year on the PUP and IR lists.
It is starting to feel like the Titans will jump at the first chance to move on from the embattled corner.
Washington Commanders: Jayden Daniels, QB
Man, this was a tough one. It kind of felt like the 2024 Offensive Rookie of the Year’s sophomore season never got started.
Jayden Daniels was supposed to build on a magical rookie season. Instead… knee sprain. Hamstring. Dislocated elbow.
He was pulled due to injury in 4 of his 7 games and shut down for the final 3 weeks.
The results? His team nose-dived, offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury was fired, and all in all it was a painfully frustrating year for everyone involved with the football team in our nation’s capital. That—no one could argue.
