The Kansas City Chiefs missed the NFL playoffs for the first time since the 2014 season. The Cincinnati Bengals will miss them for the third straight year. Barring a miracle, the Dallas Cowboys won’t be in it either.
These are three big teams with some big-name players missing. Let’s see what happens next.
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Cowboys ready for big stage in 2026
Jerry Jones is having a strange season, but he helps the Cowboys make a major leap back to the top of the NFC in 2026. Trading draft capital for Micah Parsons is certainly unconventional, but acquiring All-Pro phenom Quinnen Williams gives them a new elite difference-maker on the defensive line.
This team is in good shape and the offense can put up points, but the rest of the defense…phew. This is where there is still a lot of work to be done.
Williams’ presence gives Dallas a chance to at least add some variety and disruption in the frontcourt, which could help a porous secondary, but his presence alone won’t be enough. The Cowboys remain one of the worst defenses in the league, and they just last week made the hapless Vikings offense look like a top team. Their corners and safeties need to get better, otherwise it won’t matter how much pressure Williams and the rest of the defensive line are put under. They’re still allowing too many big blocks, making it difficult for even one of the best offenses in the league — which needs to re-sign George Pickens even though Jones has given every indication of his plans — to keep up with what they’re giving up on the other side.
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At the very least, Jones leaves them with a flexible position that can be significantly upgraded this offseason, as he also has an additional 2026 first-round pick in the Parsons trade. Whether the Cowboys package the extra No. 1 into something else remains to be seen, but they do have the draft assets to maintain flexibility. They have some major salary cap issues right now, ranking 32nd in projected salary cap space in 2026 at $36 million according to Spotrac, but they have some simple decisions, like moving on from Tre’Von Diggs and Terrence Steele, that could give them immediate cap relief.
Jerry Jones stumbled upon a solid plan. It’s time to see if he can continue to make moves to take advantage of how good their offense is.
Almost a blessing in disguise for Chiefs
The reset wasn’t the worst thing in the world for the Kansas City Chiefs, who had struggled the past two seasons, but it came at a huge cost, with superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes going down with a torn ACL in the fourth quarter of a loss to the Chargers, officially knocking them out of the playoff picture.
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Mahomes had surgery to repair his ACL and reportedly had his ACL repaired, so he should be able to come back clean, but the Chiefs clearly have major issues outside of him to address. The offense has improved, but their luck in individual games has plummeted and they are now out of the playoff picture. While the offense is better, it’s clear that’s mostly a result of having one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time and they need to add quality talent to this roster.
The health of the offensive line was the Chiefs’ trump card this year, but the skill talent won’t be available at the same position next year. Xavier Worthy hasn’t lived up to his first-round grade, Rashee Rice has been inconsistent, and the running back room has been in need of legitimate investment over the years. Some say it’s disgusting, but for a first-round Hall of Fame quarterback in his prime, the offense shouldn’t be playing at this level of difficulty.
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The defense needs a talented group of backs, and the Chiefs’ defensive back corps hasn’t performed as well as the Chiefs thought it would since the first Super Bowl a few years ago against the Eagles. Steve Spagnuolo is still a great defensive coordinator, but they are really feeling the talent pressure on this team.
It’s a lot to accomplish in an offseason, but as long as they can get it done better In a handful of places, they’ll be back in contention for next year’s Super Bowl. Mahomes should be fine. If he’s okay, the Chiefs will be okay. They really need to start over and figure out how to be a productive football team again.
Bengals still need what they’ve always had
The Bengals will counterattack with the same offensive core in an attempt to make another Super Bowl appearance before this window closes. The season has been filled with familiar struggles, including injuries to Joe Burrow and Ty Higgins, inconsistent play from the offensive supporting cast, and another poor performance from the defense. Cincinnati hasn’t made the playoffs since 2022, and that streak will extend to another season after being officially eliminated by the Ravens.
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There’s no doubt it’s frustrating that they find themselves in this position all the time, but figuring out what to do next is confusing because they’ve already tried plans that most people would suggest.
Cincinnati paid big contract money for its top players on offense and supplemented that effort by investing high-value draft picks on defense. Ultimately, they just missed so Many times. The defense was littered with recent top-100 picks, including multiple first- and second-round picks, but they just didn’t get those right. It’s not that they haven’t tried to take a responsible approach to stocking the defense given where the salary cap allocation is going, they just haven’t drafted the right players.
Fortunately, this upcoming season, the Bengals will have a chance to be really aggressive in the offseason to upgrade their defense. According to Spotrac, they expect to have more than $110 million in cap space to spend. NFL free agency isn’t as strong as it once was, with big-name players hitting the open market, but they could easily find upgrades for one of the league’s least talented defenses.
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Spend time on defense and pray for healthy offense. That’s really all they can do unless they’re really ready to blow up their offensive scheme and change everything. Considering the offensive season they had a year ago, that’s probably not necessary — good luck really is the most important thing here.
