The bottom of the NFL can get messy fast, and 2026 looks primed to deliver a few teams that could be staring at a long year. The league’s top tier is easier to sketch out, but the cellar? That’s where the surprises usually sneak in.
The Arizona Cardinals look like the clearest candidate to land near the very bottom. They’re carrying a bottom-5 roster, a bottom-5 quarterback room, and a first-year coaching staff, all while being stuck in what the source calls the best division in football.
That’s a brutal combination. The Cardinals could even become the first winless team in the 17-game era, and there’s a real path to them ending up with the first overall pick in the 2027 NFL Draft, which could put Arch Manning in play.
The Carolina Panthers also belong on this list, even after finishing 8-9 in 2025 and winning the NFC South. That division was weak, but the Panthers still got the job done.
The problem is that they don’t look especially dangerous on either side of the ball, and Bryce Young remains a limited quarterback. The source sees 2025 as Young’s ceiling, pointing to his size concerns and the fact that he’s been a bottom-7 quarterback for most of his career.
The advice here is simple: sell the Panthers stock before 2026 starts.
The New York Giants are a little different. They made what’s described as a rock-solid move by hiring John Harbaugh as their next head coach, but that doesn’t automatically solve everything.
The roster still may not do anything particularly well, and there’s no guarantee Harbaugh is the perfect fit. The expectation is a step forward, just not a huge one.
The more realistic timeline, according to the source, is that the Giants are still a year away and may need to get to the 2027 offseason before making more aggressive roster moves. Harbaugh’s track record could take time to settle in with the franchise.
In Other News...
Kenny Pickett Is Putting Carolina In A Tough Spot Behind Bryce Young
Carolinas quarterback room looked different when the offseason began, with the Panthers moving on from Andy Dalton and bringing in Kenny Pickett, Will Grier and undrafted rookie Haynes King to sit behind Bryce Young. Griers retirement already thinned the group, and now the team is getting a clearer look at how the depth chart might settle once camp work starts to matter more than offseason plans.
Picketts training camp has not given Carolina much comfort, and that has opened the door for King to at least make this interesting. The Panthers are still sorting out what they want behind Young, and if Pickett does not steady himself soon, the conversation could shift from simply finding a backup to deciding whether Carolina needs to keep an extra quarterback around at all. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Suddenly Face A Huge Camp Test Up Front
The Panthers were supposed to use the start of camp to get a head start, opening early because of their Hall of Fame Game appearance. Instead, the first real test up front has arrived almost immediately, with the offensive line already being reshuffled before the pads even come on in earnest. Carolina has had to adjust around Taylor Moton and the left side as well, turning what should have been a routine summer ramp-up into a live evaluation of depth and adaptability.
Rookie Monroe Freeling has been thrust into the mix on the right side, while Rasheed Walker was brought in to help stabilize the left tackle spot after Ikem Ekwonus injury. For a team trying to build continuity, the challenge is obvious: the Panthers are now asking new pieces to settle in fast, and the early weeks of camp will tell them a lot about whether this front can hold together when the regular season arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Just Made Their Biggest Pass Rush Bet Yet
Carolina spent the early part of the offseason trying to solve a problem that showed up in plain sight all year: the pass rush never consistently threatened opposing quarterbacks. After finishing last in pressure rate and near the bottom of the sack leaderboard in 2025, the Panthers went looking for a difference-maker and found one in Jaelan Phillips, the former Eagles edge rusher whose arrival instantly changes the conversation around that front.
Phillips move to Charlotte also says plenty about how the Panthers sold the opportunity, not just the money. He pointed to the contract as a major factor in choosing Carolina, and the teams willingness to make him one of the biggest investments of the free-agent cycle shows how urgent the need felt. The question now is whether the Panthers finally have the kind of rusher who can turn a glaring weakness into something much harder for opponents to plan around. [Read more 🡒]