Stefon Diggs, Russell Wilson and the Most WTF Moves of the 2025 NFL Offseason

We’re a few weeks into free agency and less than a month from the 2025 NFL draft. Veteran player movement has been in full swing for some time now, with scores of players changing teams and millions of dollars changing hands.

Some fanbases are delighted with their team's activity, celebrating a splash signing that filled a major need or a bargain arrival who could provide valuable production on the cheap. Much of that jubilation is justified, even if it’s tainted by the rose-colored glasses of fandom.

However, some deals have been head-scratchers. Big contracts for players with no chance of living up to them, questionable trades, and acquisitions that give pause as to whether the teams making them have any real plan at all.

Every year has its share of "WTF" moves, and 2025 has been no different. And none have been more mind-boggling than those listed here.

The New England Patriots entered free agency with two things: The most salary-cap space in the NFL and a massive need at wide receiver.

The Patriots have been on quite the spending spree since free agency opened, but they hadn't addressed wide receiver—that is, until they signed Stefon Diggs to a three-year, $69 million deal.

It’s a move that former Patriots receiver Julian Edelman applauded on the Dudes on Dudes Podcast (h/t Nick Goss of NBC Sports):

"No one ever second-guesses how hard (Diggs) works and the amount of work that he puts into his craft. If you're getting a motivated Stefon Diggs, that could be really beneficial to the young football players in that young football room that they call the receiver room in New England.

"They have a lot of young football players there. It'd be really good for these younger guys to be able to see how a professional works daily. How a professional prepares daily. How a professional takes care of his body. And if Diggs is doing that, you gotta bring him in. They need a little veteran leadership in that room."

If the Patriots were getting Diggs at his best, this deal might be easier to sign off on. But there's no guarantee that will be the case.

He is 31 years old and tore his ACL in Week 8 last year. Last year, he averaged just 10.6 yards per reception, his lowest total since 2018. And the Patriots are his fourth team for a reason; if the losses start piling up or the targets aren’t there, it's not difficult to imagine Diggs grousing.

The Pats just gave over $20 million a season to a mercurial veteran who frankly isn't a No. 1 receiver anymore.

And it's a move that will likely backfire.

Before we go any farther, there's something that needs saying: In a vacuum, signing veteran quarterback Russell Wilson to a one-year deal isn't a bad idea for the New York Giants.

Even the average Wilson we saw last season with the Pittsburgh Steelers would be a marked improvement under center for Big Blue.

However, the Giants haven't signed the 36-year-old in a vacuum—the move came just days after Jameis Winston penned a two-year deal with New York.

And as Seth Walder noted for ESPN, that gives the appearance they don't have a plan:

"Getting Wilson for one year at $10.5 million (because that's what I assume the deal ultimately will be) isn't that wild in a vacuum. But who were they fighting to pay that much to Wilson? And much more importantly, why? The Giants already have a comparable veteran bridge QB on the roster for cheap. Signing Wilson is unnecessary, spends money that could be saved for the future and does little to nothing to raise this team's ceiling. Getting Winston for cheap, plus drafting Shedeur Sanders, Jaxson Dart or another rookie QB at No. 3 overall, would have been making the most of a terrible quarterback hand. Adding Wilson costs $10.5 million and doesn't help very much."

Maybe Giants general manager Joe Schoen is convinced Sanders won't make it past the Cleveland Browns at No. 2. But the more likely explanation is that he and head coach Brian Daboll know they won't survive another disappointing season in New York and they are doing anything they can to prevent one.

Panic moves rarely work out, though. And a Giants team with Wilson will likely win just enough to knock them out of the running for an elite QB prospect in 2026.

The Seattle Seahawks have had one of the more eventful offseasons in the NFL, highlighted by the team essentially swapping out Geno Smith at quarterback for Sam Darnold.

The swap was ostensibly born of contract demands that the team wasn't willing to meet. Darnold was essentially the best Plan B available. His three-year, $100.5 million contract wasn't unreasonable for a player coming off a 14-win season.

However, as Kevin Patra of NFL.com noted, the odds of the 27-year-old repeating that 2024 success aren't especially good:

“Even with the favorable contract and the projected fit in (Klint) Kubiak's offense, I still don't like Darnold in Seattle as the centerpiece of a transition. Replacing Smith with Darnold is like substituting prosciutto with tavern ham.

"Darnold is going from the cushiest of offenses with a sublime play-caller in Kevin O’Connell, a catch machine in Justin Jefferson, good secondary weapons in Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockenson, and solid if unspectacular blocking. The interior blocking wasn't good in Minnesota, but it was head and shoulders better than what Smith dealt with in Seattle.

"Now, Darnold is stepping into a situation with one ascending receiver in Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who is a primary slot, an aging Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Jake Bobo as his top targets. The offensive line massively underperformed last season, and the interior is one of the worst in the league."

It's understandable that a 10-win team didn't want to completely reset in 2025. But when Smith and wide receiver DK Metcalf both requested trades, Seattle had two choices: Start over or attempt to somehow tread water.

The Seahawks chose the latter route, signing Darnold and veteran wide receiver Cooper Kupp. Both were downgrades over what they had...and Seattle's biggest problems from a year ago are still there.

Seattle looks like an also-ran in 2025; too bad to be a legitimate contender, but too good to land a high pick in 2026.

And that morass in the middle is, arguably, the worst place an NFL franchise can find itself.

It’s not often that a division winner takes a buzzsaw to the offensive line. But after a season in which they allowed the third-most sacks (54) in the league and finished the year toward the bottom of many offensive-line rankings, that's exactly what the Houston Texans have done.

Swapping out Kenyon Green for Ed Ingram at guard wasn't necessarily a bad idea. Green might have been a 2022 first-round pick, but he was one of the worst interior linemen in the entire NFL in 2024, per Pro Football Focus.

However, trading C.J. Stroud's blindside protector Laremy Tunsil most assuredly qualifies as a WTF move.

Yes, the five-time Pro Bowler committed a whopping 19 penalties in 2024, but he was also one of the best pass-blocking tackles in the league, allowing just two sacks in over 1,000 snaps, per PFF.

Per Max Chadwick of PFF, the Texans now head into the draft with a more glaring need up front than they had a month ago:

"Entering free agency, the Texans faced major problems along their interior offensive line but at least had one of the NFL's best pass protectors in left tackle Laremy Tunsil. A few weeks later, Tunsil is with the Washington Commanders and it's even more unclear how the team's offensive line will keep C.J. Stroud upright next season.

"The question isn't whether the Texans should use their first-round pick on an offensive lineman; it's whether they should try to trade up from Pick No. 25 to grab one of the top options."

The Texans also added veteran guard Laken Tomlinson, but the Tunsil trade was a head-scratcher for a team with postseason aspirations.

Now it's a case of hitting on a tackle early in the draft—or else.

The Texans aren't the only AFC South team that made a questionable decision on the offensive line.

That the Tennessee Titans needed to improve their O-line was obvious. Assuming they draft Miami quarterback Cam Ward with the first overall pick, they had to do something to improve the protection in front of him.

The Titans were wildly aggressive in that regard, signing free-agent tackle Dan Moore Jr. to a four-year deal that makes him one of the 10 highest-paid tackles in football.

To his credit, the 26-year-old told Jim Wyatt of the official Titans website that he's committed to showing Tennessee's hefty investment in him was money well-spent:

"Obviously I want to exceed expectations. But it's not only about proving the team right, it's about proving myself right. I feel like my expectations will always be higher than anyone else's are for me. I feel like by meeting my expectations, I'll exceed the team's expectations.

"So, not only do I want to prove them right, I want to prove them damn right, where (they're thinking), 'We got our guy. He didn't just do what we needed him to do, he did that and more.' That is the consensus I want in the organization."

The problem is that in no world is Moore a top-10 tackle. Per Pro Football Focus, he allowed a whopping dozen sacks in 1,111 snaps a year ago. No tackle allowed more. His pass-blocking grade fell outside the top-60 among tackles.

Bill Callahan is one of the best offensive-line coaches the NFL has seen, but it will take more than just coaching for this not to be a massive overpay.

There was a time when signing edge-rusher Chase Young for $17 million a season would have been considered a bargain. He was the second overall pick in the 2020 draft and took home Defensive Rookie of the Year honors that season.

However, after logging 7.5 sacks during that rookie season, the Ohio State product tore his ACL in 2021 and hasn't been the same since. He has 14.5 sacks for three teams over the past four seasons, including 5.5 last year in his first season in New Orleans.

For whatever reason, the Saints thought that was worth a three-year, $51 million extension that includes $33 million in guarantees.

Alex Kay of Bleacher Report blasted the contract as one of free agency's biggest boondoggles in 2025:

"He's been rather average since signing with the Saints last offseason, collecting 5.5 sacks and 31 tackles—including eight for a loss—while playing 742 defensive snaps in 2024.

"These may not be terrible numbers for a rotational pass-rusher, but allocating a sizable chunk of money to an injury-prone player isn't the right move for a cash-strapped Saints squad.

"The team hasn't contended since Drew Brees retired but continues to spend big on veterans while punting the financial ramifications of these decisions down the line.

"Even if Chase goes on to post some of his best personal seasons over the next three years, his presence won't result in New Orleans becoming a Super Bowl threat. The team should embrace a rebuild, but signings like this just continue to put off the inevitable."

It just doesn't make any sense. Rather than looking for bargains, a New Orleans team stranded in salary-cap purgatory overpaid a player who has been mostly mediocre in the NFL.

No wonder the Saints have been the same for years.