Feasible Moves Teams Need to Bolster Their Rosters for 2025
Four moves teams should look to make to fill gaping holes in their roster. Also includes each team’s first round selection in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Cooper Kupp Trade to The Raiders:
This move might not seem too sexy on paper for the Vegas Raiders, but it most definitely can propel the team into contention in the AFC West. The price tag for Kupp honestly can’t be that high with the LA Rams looking to unload him and the frequent injuries he has encountered over the course of his career. That being said, Kupp’s talent alone is worth the gamble for the Raiders considering the phenomenal draft selection they made with Brock Bowers in 2024. Bowers had the best season of all time for a rookie tight end with a weak QB room, setting the rookie reception and receiving yard record for the tight end position. If you paired these two guys with Jakobi Meyers steady force as a WR2 and a new QB, this team could take flight. Kupp had the greatest year a receiver has ever had when the Rams had their Super Bowl run in the regular season and postseason. On defense they still have Maxx Crosby who’s a premier talent at defensive end and Christian Wilkins returning to the lineup after playing only five games before needing season ending surgery on his foot. They committed $27,500,000 a year over the next four seasons to Wilkins for a reason because he’s a force at defensive tackle. Along with Kupp the team seriously needs to address the QB room.
The answer for the draft and the Raiders with the hole at QB is quite simple. You don’t select a first round QB. Cam Ward is the only top ten worthy selection who will be picked before the Raiders sixth pick in 2025. After that Shadeur Sanders is nothing more than a smokescreen with heightened press from the hype of his father. The Raiders should cash in on the Darnold discount from his poor late season performance and give him a 3 year, $35 million a year deal and Kupp plus Bowers to work with. He showed he can do it with a capable cast catching passes and that early first and second pick can be put to use without selecting Shedeur. There’s three good options for the team and their first round pick. They can draft Jalon Walker out of Georgia to get a formidable edge rusher with a relentless motor to form an unstoppable defensive line as a first option. Then as a second option the team can select Kelvin Banks Jr. out of Texas to play offensive tackle and slide Kolton Miller, the team’s current left tackle back over to the right side which he played in college. Banks Jr. moves far better than an average offensive tackle and keeps the quarterback clean. That is all you can ask for in an offensive tackle. I’m not calling the guy Penei Sewell as an athlete, but if he’s close it’s a no brainer to select him. The third option is taking Will Johnson out of Michigan because his coverage against good competition was lockdown. There’s an abundance of talent in this year’s draft and common consensus says the Raiders should take Shedeur at six, but he is not the answer for the team.
Packers Swipe Metcalf From Seattle for Picks:
If the Green Bay Packers had a prototype for wide receiver it would for sure be DK Metcalf. Jordan Love throws deep balls with regularity and Metcalf has the perfect build and sprinter speed to haul in his strikes. Metcalf possesses the element that Love could never get with Christian Watson always being injured. An elite contested catch artist that hasn’t had the chance to flourish from a special QB talent. Jordan Love played through injury all season in 2024 and calling him a special talent is not a stretch considering some of the throws he made throughout the course of this past season. Once Jordan Love has a player like DK to accompany Jayden Reed as a dependable pass catcher alongside his workhorse running back Josh Jacobs to move the chains, Green Bay can become a serious threat. Their defense is already special even with Jaire Alexander missing games and likely being dealt this offseason. In the 2025 NFL Draft with the 23rd pick they should probably just look to address their interior offensive line that was obliterated during the postseason after Elgton Jenkins went down.
The offensive lineman they should look to draft here is a no brainer. Donovan Jackson out of Ohio State who is the one of the most NFL ready offensive lineman to fall outside of the top 15 picks the league has seen in recent history. This would aid in the run game, but mainly help in the pass game since Love got harassed at the end of the year with his top 2 wideouts going down alongside Jenkins on the interior of the offensive line. Security as guard is well worth a late round first selection and the odds he busts are incredibly low. This selection along with Metcalf would scare me as a Lions fan in all honesty.
Tee Higgins ends up a Charger:
Herbert needs a receiver more than any other QB in the NFL at this point. He’s been handicapped by a combination of the worst coaching and roster composition any QB in the league has faced. With Coach Staley the Chargers had an utterly putrid defense that killed any shot of the team making a playoff run despite having solid pieces on that side of the ball. With Coach Harbuagh in his first year Herbert was forced to rely upon Quentin Johnston, Jalen Reagor, Joshua Palmer, and Ladd McConkey which is less than ideal to put it lightly. This lack of a true wide receiver haunted the team all year and in the playoffs Herbert would melt against the Texans because of it. That’s why Tee Higgins needs to enter the picture immediately in Los Angeles. Higgins is one of the most technical receivers in the NFL. He does everything at an elite level when it comes to route running, his hands, and lastly his ability to make ridiculously difficult catches with his six foot four inch frame. He’s good enough to be a formidable wide receiver one, which he hasn’t played so far in his career being second fiddle to Jamarr Chase’s ridiculously explosive play in Cincinnati. Alongside the addition of Higgins the team should double dip with their first round selection.
With their first round pick there’s one guy who really jumps out at the wide receiver position. That man is Tetairoa McMillan out of The University of Arizona. He’s had back to back 1,300+ yard receiving seasons in college and possesses a frame that would be utilized to its fullest with Herbert as his quarterback. He was slated to go far above the Chargers 23rd overall pick, but now seems within range for the team if they trade up a few picks to acquire him. It’s not often a consistent dominant force at wide receiver falls into a team’s lap around pick 20, but McMillan is a surefire pick. Pairing McMillan’s six foot five inch frame with Tee Higgins would make the Chargers offense utterly unstoppable with McConkey in the slot. The real question is can Coach Harbaugh stray away from his ground and pound philosophy in favor of a scheme that maximizes Justin Herbert’s potential? He talks glowingly about Herbert so it’s easy to believe Harbaugh is going to let his gunslinger loose with the tools he needs to make a playoff push in the AFC.
Cowboys Grab Diggs for a Bargain:
This one seems like a no brainer for the Cowboys and their current standing. They don’t have any wide receivers to accompany Ceedee Lamb and Stefon Diggs proved with the Texans last season that he still can be a more than capable option. Even after losing his ability to stretch defenses down the field as he has lost a step. He’d be joining his brother on the Cowboys Trevon and he just got 500 yards receiving in a season that was cut short to eight games after a non contact ACL injury. He’ll be at an all time low price this offseason in free agency and he still maintains his stellar ability to grill defenders with precision. Leverage in route running is something Diggs has always used to flourish in the NFL and on this Dallas team it isn’t hard to see him fitting in well next to Ceedee Lamb in the offense. He can play the same role Amari Cooper did in Dallas, which was to be a capable threat that could put together a thousand yard receiving season. Dallas is in desperation mode after an incredibly uninspiring 2024 season and their first round selection should be put to use to fill their two biggest needs. Defensive tackle or offensive guard.
The Cowboys should trade back and draft Donovan Jackson to replace their stud offensive guard, Zack Martin who retired this offseason. Martin was a steady pillar in Dallas and an automatic Hall of Famer. At guard Donovan Jackson is likely the most sound option at the position out of OSU. If the team looks to fill the position in free agency then they should draft one of two defensive tackles in the first round of the draft. The first option is Walter Nolen out of Ole Miss. He’s an alarmingly fast defensive tackle who disrupts the middle of the offensive line with his fast twitch movements and explosiveness upon the snap of the football. He’s an elite grade pass rusher too at 300+ pounds which is yet another reason to take him. The second option is trading back a few picks to take Kenneth Grant out of Michigan who’s an even bigger mountain of a man at 340 pounds. Grant is phenomenal against the run and flashed potential to get to the passer at his size, something that is unheard of. The Cowboys have been gashed in the middle of their defensive line and desperately are in need of reinforcements making either option a good choice.
