The NFL offseason is nearing its conclusion, as 27 teams have now wrapped up their mandatory minicamps. Once the final handful of teams take care of their veteran minicamps next week, the league will go quiet until training camps start in July. That doesn't mean there won't be anything to talk about, by the way. The offseason workouts may be ending but the questions looming in certain parts of the league will still linger.
The one thing we all know about this time of year is that we get a lot of talk without many answers. Yes, Aaron Rodgers finally signed with Pittsburgh, but we won't know how he'll impact the Steelers until real games begin. The same holds true for what wide receiver George Pickens will mean to Dallas or how the quarterback competition in Cleveland will play out. It's been fun to talk about all these topics, but we'll be talking about them just as much for the next few months.
With that in mind, this edition of The First Read will delve into other questions that should be on our minds as we move past this round of minicamps. There is no shortage of options for an exercise like this, but we limited our choices to the questions we found most intriguing. Here they are ...
1) How will the Eagles replace so much defensive talent?
The major question about Philadelphia's hopes for a second consecutive Super Bowl win revolve around a defense that lost some key pieces from last year's championship team. The front seven lost defensive end Milton Williams and edge rushers Brandon Graham (retired) and Josh Sweat. The secondary parted ways with cornerback Darius Slay and safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson. So, how will the Eagles retool in the wake of all those departures? They'll do what they always do, which is rely on the shrewd personnel moves of general manager Howie Roseman and smart coaches to make it all work.
Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio has a valuable chess piece in slot corner Cooper DeJean, who could move to outside corner or safety in base defense looks depending on how the other players at those spots develop. Fangio also has tremendous faith in the maturation of edge rusher Nolan Smith (who had four sacks in the last year's postseason) and the potential of second-year edge rusher Jalyx Hunt (who had a sack in that Super Bowl win over Kansas City). The Eagles are also high on adding first-round pick Jihaad Campbell to a linebacker corps that includes All-Pro Zack Baun. Like Baun, Campbell has the versatility to line up in various spots of the defense and be impactful. In other words, there may be some new faces on defense in Philly. The expectations, however, shouldn't change that much.
2) What veteran quarterback addition will have the biggest impact on his team aside from Aaron Rodgers?
There's a long list here -- including Sam Darnold (Seattle), Justin Fields (New York Jets), Russell Wilson (New York Giants) and Daniel Jones (Indianapolis) -- but Geno Smith is the obvious choice. The Raiders traded a third-round pick to acquire him from Seattle, and he's walking into a situation that is extremely familiar to him. Head coach Pete Carroll was leading the Seahawks back in 2022 when that team decided to deal Russell Wilson to Denver and elevate Smith from backup to starter after Smith spent several years operating as a journeyman backup. Smith has been a solid signal-caller in the three seasons since that point, as he's averaged 4,075 passing yards and thrown 71 touchdown passes and 35 interceptions.
Smith now reunites with Carroll in Las Vegas, where it's been years since that franchise had anything close to productive quarterback play. It's no secret that Carroll is going to run the ball like crazy with rookie running back Ashton Jeanty operating as his bell cow back. What Smith needs to do is the things that the most recent Raiders quarterbacks couldn't: make the big throws when they matter most, provide steady leadership and avoid the mistakes that plagued him last season, when he threw 15 interceptions. Look, nobody is sitting here predicting the Raiders to morph into a playoff team after winning four games in 2024. However, it is reasonable to expect three to five more victories with Smith providing better quarterback play.
3) Which contender can join Kansas City, Buffalo and Baltimore as an elite team in the AFC?
The Broncos make the most sense right now, with the Chargers not far behind them. The one thing that separates Denver from other teams in this category -- along with Los Angeles, Houston and Cincinnati are the most sensible picks -- is defense. The Broncos have one of the best units in the league and they remain flush with talent after leading the NFL in sacks and ranking third in points allowed last season. Denver has arguably the best edge-rushing duo in the league in Nik Bonitto and Jonathan Cooper. It has a disruptive interior presence in Zach Allen and the NFL's best cornerback tandem in Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain II and Riley Moss. If the new players added this offseason -- linebacker Dre Greenlaw, safety Talanoa Hufanga and cornerback Jahdae Barron, the team's first-round pick -- live up to the hype, this will be the best defense in the league. The offense should also be better this season now that quarterback Bo Nix has a second year in head coach Sean Payton's offense, and there are more weapons in the mix (including running backs R.J. Harvey and J.K. Dobbins and tight end Evan Engram). Yes, the Broncos are betting on a lot of dudes with long injury histories staying healthy. It's also worth pondering where this team could go if that actually happens.
4) Will a youth movement make the Ravens defense the most dominant in the NFL again?
Baltimore has high hopes for its first two picks in this year's draft, as safety Malaki Starks and edge rusher Mike Green have the potential to help this defense immediately. The Ravens started slowly on that side of the football last season, as coverage mishaps and explosive passing plays marred the first half of the year until personnel changes and adjustments turned that unit into one of the league's best down the stretch. Defensive coordinator Zach Orr already loves the chemistry that has developed between Starks and veteran safety Kyle Hamilton in offseason workouts. Like Hamilton, Starks is versatile and has a nose for the football, so the expectation is that he'll learn fast. Green was a first-round talent who slipped into the second round because of off-field concerns, and he might end up being one of the steals of the draft. He led the FBS in sacks in 2024, and his athleticism -- he played wide receiver in high school and linebacker at Virginia before finishing at Marshall -- could make him disruptive in Year 1. Orr admitted to local reporters that this defense learned a lot about itself by dealing with those growing pains in his first year on the job. The additions of Starks and Green should make that process much easier this fall.
5) Will the Bengals defense really improve after so much offseason drama?
It's hard to see how Cincinnati becomes better on that side of the ball after the way the last few months have played out. The contract dispute with All-Pro edge rusher Trey Hendrickson has moved through multiple stages, from the team allowing him to seek a trade to his complaints about the franchise being unwilling to broker a deal and finally his absence from mandatory minicamp this week. This situation has literally turned uglier with each passing month. Add in the fact that Cincinnati lost one defensive leader to retirement (defensive end Sam Hubbard), released another (linebacker Germaine Pratt) and still doesn't know when edge rusher Shemar Stewart, its first-round pick, will sign his rookie contract, and it doesn't feel like this squad is about to change its fortunes with new defensive coordinator Al Golden taking over. What made Cincinnati's defense so good when this team was a true championship contender was chemistry. The players who played for former defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo bought into his creative schemes, and they created problems for various teams, most notably Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. The Bengals learned a tough lesson on defense when that unit declined after veteran safeties Jessie Bates and Vonn Bell left in free agency following the 2022 season (Bell returned to the team in 2024). Losing more leaders from a much worse defense won't make things any easier around those parts.
6) Does Kirk Cousins end up being a backup in Atlanta this season?
Unless we're missing something here, this is the only option for Cousins at this stage. There could've been some smoke around Pittsburgh if Rodgers had decided to retire, but that didn't happen. Every other team that needed a veteran quarterback earlier this offseason found one, leaving Cousins with no other choice than to make it work in Atlanta a little while longer. He did show up for the team's mandatory minicamp, which is a good start if you're going to be stuck in a place you don't want to be for the foreseeable future. There's also the real possibility of Cousins being traded later in the year if another team suffers through injury problems at quarterback. He reportedly has said that he wants to be dealt to a team where a starting job is available. In that case, it's time for him to wait patiently for a vacancy to appear. Cousins made $100 million in guaranteed money when he signed with Atlanta last season. The best he can do for now -– and he said as much this week -- is be a reliable backup to Micheal Penix Jr.
7) Can the 49ers enjoy a bounce-back season after enduring so many problems in 2024?
There are a lot of questions for the 49ers to answer after finishing 6-11 last season, but it's not like they don't have talent. The real issue is whether they can stay healthy and if the return of defensive coordinator Robert Saleh can energize a defense that finished 29th in points allowed. That unit could look a lot better if rookie edge rusher Mykel Williams can be the perfect complement to All-Pro Nick Bosa. It's been years since the 49ers could line up with two bookends capable of hounding opposing passers. That defense also needs to improve because the 49ers will be going through their own transition on offense. Wide receiver Deebo Samuel is gone and fellow wideout Brandon Aiyuk is returning from a torn ACL. That puts a heavier burden on quarterback Brock Purdy to utilize players like Jauan Jennings and Ricky Pearsall in the passing game. Of course, it also will help if running back Christian McCaffery can play in more than four games, as he did last season. It's clear that plenty of things have to go right for the 49ers to be playoff contenders again. It's also true that several core players still remain from a team that played in four conference championship games and two Super Bowls in the last six years. They'll be better than most think.
8) Does the presence of Davante Adams make the Rams offense elite again?
Adams has posted five straight 1,000-yard seasons. It wouldn't be smart to bet against him extending that streak even though he turns 33 years old in December. The Rams signed Adams because they understood one of the major factors in their mediocre offense was their inability to keep talented receivers on the field. Both Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua missed time last season and neither player hit the 1,000-yard mark. As a result, the Rams fielded an offense that ranked 20th in scoring and 15th in yards. Adams proved last year that he still has enough juice to be a difference-maker, as he totaled 67 receptions, 854 yards and seven touchdowns in 11 games with the Jets following a midseason trade from Las Vegas. He also did all that while playing for a team that fired its head coach and offensive coordinator. Now imagine what Adams can do with one of the game's brightest offensive minds (head coach Sean McVay), a gifted quarterback still playing at a high level (Matthew Stafford) and Nacua and other weapons around him. Adams already has raved about McVay, the team chemistry and the positive vibes around the Rams facility. In fact, the more he talks, the harder it is to imagine the Rams not being one of the most dangerous offenses in the league again.
9) What's going to happen with Jalen Ramsey?
It's been nearly two months since Ramsey and the Dolphins mutually agreed to explore trade options for the star cornerback. The fact that nothing happened during the draft means Ramsey's market is a lot harder to determine today. The main issue here is that he's obviously expensive, as he signed a three-year, $72.3 million extension last September. That's a steep price to pay -– even for a player as talented and accomplished as Ramsey -– and it doesn't help his cause that Green Bay just released cornerback Jaire Alexander. The Packers didn't want to keep Alexander around because of his injury history, but a team looking for a veteran cornerback might find him to be a more attractive investment. The same holds true for free agent cornerbacks like Asante Samuel Jr., Stephon Gilmore and Rasul Douglas, all of whom have been available since March. It's fair to assume somebody is going to make a deal for Ramsey because there are teams that have the cap space to accommodate him. It's just that most of those teams aren't contenders -- the Rams are the only franchise to express public interest -– and this situation is far more complicated than it looked back in April.
