Every NFC team’s biggest challenge in 2025: Cowboys’ run defense, Bears’ expectations and more issues

The NFL offseason is typically a time for hope. 

Every team makes its new hires and signs its new players and brings in its long-term building blocks in the draft, and this time of year, everyone wants to think that everything is going to work out just fine. That’s the case even once we get rolling into the preseason games, because there is still time for all the kinks to be worked out. 

But of course, we know that things don’t always work out for the best. There are always challenges that pop up or things that need to be overcome. That’s why we’re here today. We want to take a look at some of the biggest challenges or issues facing each NFL team this upcoming season.

We’ll begin today by looking at the NFC and close things out with the 16 AFC teams on Tuesday.

NFC East

Dallas Cowboys: Run defense

Dallas has struggled to stop opposing run games for years now, and didn’t do all that much to upgrade on the defensive interior this offseason. Unless former first-round pick Mazi Smith takes a step forward (and it’ll be tough for him to do so playing in a scheme that doesn’t fit his skill set), it’ll be up to guys like Solomon Thomas and Perrion Winfrey to handle significant roles, while linebackers Marist Liufau, Kenneth Murray, Jack Sanborn, Damone Clark and rookie Shemar James will have to pick up the slack until Demarvion Overshown returns from his gruesome knee injury. 

New York Giants: Quarterback play

The Giants mercifully ended the Daniel Jones era in the middle of last season and will eventually make a transition to Jaxson Dart, but before then, there’s going to be a whole lot of Russell Wilson — and that’s a major question mark. When Russ is running hot on the deep ball, things can look pretty good, like they did for a stretch in the middle of last season in Pittsburgh. With Malik Nabers and Darius Slayton as perimeter threats, there’s a possibility of replicating some of that. But when Russ isn’t hitting the bombs, he just doesn’t bring all that much else to the table at this point, and it’s there where the Giants’ offense could run into more than a bit of trouble. 

Philadelphia Eagles: Replicating results

The Eagles won the Super Bowl last year, which is obviously very difficult to do twice in a row. But even beyond that, it might prove difficult to replicate what they did on each side of the ball in 2024. Philadelphia was so overwhelmingly dominant in the run game that it almost can’t quite happen again. (And there are already some offensive line question marks with Mekhi Becton leaving in free agency and Landon Dickerson getting an MRI. Plus, there’s Saquon Barkley’s massive workload.) On defense, the turnover in the defensive backfield is a potential issue. They already added Jakorian Bennett to hopefully shore that issue up. They should be quite good, but taking a small step backward from last year should probably be expected. 

Washington Commanders: Pass rush

Even after signing Von Miller, the Commies still don’t have much in the way of juice coming off the edge. Miller himself slumped to only six combined sacks and 11 quarterback hits over the last two seasons, and he’s likely to fill a similar rotational role to the one he did in Buffalo. Dorance Armstrong has always been a better complementary rusher than one on whom you can count for continuous pressure, and after losing Dante Fowler Jr. back to Dallas, the rest of the group is wholly uninspiring. Plus, they replaced Jonathan Allen inside with Javon Kinlaw, the latter of whom brings very little in the pass-rush department. Washington has high expectations on offense, but the defense is more of a question mark.

NFC North

Chicago Bears: Meeting high expectations

Despite having almost no success last year, expectations for the Bears’ offense in 2025 are pretty high. That’ll happen when you hire a wunderkind former offensive coordinator as your head coach in Ben Johnson, then totally remake your offensive line by trading for Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson and signing Drew Dalman, then draft tight end Colston Loveland in the first round and both wide receiver Luther Burden III and tackle Ozzy Trapilo in the second. All of a sudden, Caleb Williams and Co. seem like they have no excuses heading into just the second year of his NFL career. And that’s a tough place to be in the first year of a complicated new system.

Detroit Lions: Offensive turnover

Speaking of Johnson, he’s no longer running the show in Detroit. Former Broncos assistant John Morton (who was a special assistant to Johnson in Detroit in 2022) is now the offensive coordinator. And that’s not the only significant change. The dominant offensive line on which the team’s identity has been built is suddenly in flux. Kevin Zeitler left the team in free agency and Frank Ragnow retired shortly before training camp opened. The Lions expected to use second-round pick Tate Ratledge at center but have already moved him back to guard, with Graham Glasgow moving from guard to center and Christian Mahogany stepping in at the other guard spot. That means new starters at each interior OL spot, two of whom have almost no experience.

Green Bay Packers: Wide receivers (again)

Green Bay drafted Matthew Golden to hopefully clear things up here, but there are still plenty of question marks when it comes to this room. Will Jayden Reed ever be allowed to play in two-receiver sets? Can Dontayvion Wicks actually catch the ball when he gets open? If and when Christian Watson gets back on the field, can he be more than an occasional deep-shot artist? Will Romeo Doubs be unhappy again now that there’s yet another mouth to feed? And can Golden perform at a higher level than his (relatively) mediocre college production profile suggests he can? (And will he ditch that No. 22 jersey that makes him look terrible?) The Packers need to find answers for all of these questions and more so Jordan Love can reach his ceiling. 

Minnesota Vikings: Cornerback

There’s a reason we named free-agent signing Isaiah Rodgers as the Vikings’ most important non-quarterback for 2025. “The Vikes lost several players from last year’s secondary, and will be counting on Rodgers to man one of the outside cornerback spots. He fared fairly well the last few years when counted on to step into the lineup for the Eagles, but he’s likely to be a full-time starter now — and in one of the most complex, difficult situations in the league. Brian Flores walks a tight rope with his defensive scheme, and if Rodgers isn’t up to the task, things might change dramatically on that side of the ball.”

NFC South

Atlanta Falcons: Pass rush

What else is new for the Falcons? They haven’t found a way to rush the passer since approximately 1957 — and they didn’t even exist until 1966, so you go ahead and figure that one out. Atlanta double-dipped on pass rushers in the first round of this year’s draft by bringing in Jalon Walker and James Pearce Jr., and it will need those guys to play a significant role in Raheem Morris’ defense because there is honestly not that much pass rush juice elsewhere on the roster. If they can’t consistently get after the quarterback, the Falcons are likely to again wind up in a bunch of shootouts. 

Carolina Panthers: Pass defense

The Panthers checked in second-to-last in expected points added (EPA) per dropback allowed last season, via Tru Media, with opposing quarterbacks sitting pretty in clean pockets and picking their secondary to pieces. Carolina got pressure on just 25.2% of dropbacks (dead last) and also ranked dead last in average time to pressure (2.75 seconds). There was no level of disruption to anything that opposing passers wanted to do on any level. As a result, Carolina yielded first downs on 38.7% of passes (also dead last) and explosive plays on 8.6% of dropbacks (27th in the NFL). If things don’t change this year, improvement on offense might not matter as much as it seems. 

New Orleans Saints: Quarterback play

So, this team is going to start one of Spencer Rattler, Jake Haener and second-round pick Tyler Shough under center. They might be better off with head coach Kellen Moore strapping on the pads again and giving it a go himself, given what we saw from Rattler and Haener in their opportunities last year and what the reports are like about Shough coming out of Saints camp. Things could get very ugly on this front. 

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Offensive injuries

This is somewhat-recently developing challenge for Tampa, which was already going to have to navigate the loss of offensive coordinator Liam Coen, who took the head-coaching job in Jacksonville and is being replaced by Josh Grizzard. Tampa saw star tackle Tristan Wirfs have knee surgery a few weeks back, and we don’t yet know if or when he’ll get back on the field. Chris Godwin is still working his way back from the dislocated ankle that ended his 2024 season. And now passing-down back Rachaad White is dealing with a groin injury. The Bucs have suitable replacements for Godwin (Emeka Egbuka and Jalen McMillan) and White (Sean Tucker), but it remains to be seen how they deal at tackle (Charlie Heck?) if Wirfs has to miss games. 

NFC West

Arizona Cardinals: Passing game creativity

The Cardinals have been able to run the ball fairly successfully during the Jonathan Gannon era. James Conner has been highly effective and an undermanned offensive line has been able to clear the way for him with bigger holes than expected. With run-game coordinator Klayton Adams now in Dallas, things could get a bit more difficult on that front, which means the passing game needs to step up. The Cardinals were wildly uncreative with their usage of Marvin Harrison Jr. last year and it turned the aerial attack into “Marvin please win 50-50 balls” or “Trey McBride, go do stuff.” That can’t happen again. Drew Petzing and Co. need better answers this year. 

Los Angeles Rams: Age and injuries

You might have heard that Matthew Stafford is dealing with a back injury. Back injuries and 37-year-old quarterbacks go together like lamb and tuna fish. If he has to miss time, this entire operation falls apart, even if you think Jimmy Garoppolo is a capable backup. The Rams need Stafford to stay healthy because his arm and his mind open up so much of what they want to do offensively. They also can’t afford for Puka Nacua to miss time again, and obviously Davante Adams is getting up there in age as well. Oh, and Alaric Jackson is dealing with injury issues of his own. This all feels very fragilely constructed, even if the ceiling is high. 

San Francisco 49ers: Defensive turnover

As we wrote in our burning questions series: “Defensive coordinator Nick Sorenson was swapped out for former Jets head coach (and former Niners defensive coordinator) Robert Saleh, whose defenses showed improvement with each passing season that he was in San Francisco. But the Niners also just have an absolute ton of new players on that side of the ball. Stalwarts like Dre Greenlaw, Talanoa Hufanga and Charvarius Ward all moved on in free agency, and the Niners added players like Tre Brown, Richie Grant and Jason Pinnock in free agency, Bryce Huff via trade, and Mykel Williams, Alfred Collins, Nick Martin and CJ West in the draft.” How will all of this come together in Year 1?

Seattle Seahawks: Offensive line

Speaking of the burning questions… We wrote about the Sam Darnold experience and how susceptible he has been to pressure behind porous offensive lines, compared with what he was able to do for most of the year in Minnesota. “Darnold will be playing in a similar offensive system to the one he was in under Kevin O’Connell in Minnesota now that Klint Kubiak has taken over as the offensive coordinator in Seattle, but he won’t have the same type of infrastructure he was afforded with the Vikings. He has Jaxon Smith-Njigba, but not a duo like Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison — and the Seahawks’ clear weaknesses along the offensive line will leave him vulnerable to pressure, which has been a major issue for him in the past. How he and the rest of the offense navigate that reality will obviously be important to watch.”