The reality of the NFL is that it's a "finite resource league". There's only so many opportunities to invest into players and, with a salary cap in place, you can't simply out-spend everyone for talent for an extended period of time. 

And, as teams find out every year, the better players play, the more they cost — oftentimes leaving in free agency to play somewhere else and try to live up to a new standard with a new income bracket. As such, there are position rooms across the NFL that are still leaving something to be desired. What are the most prominent ones across the NFL? And if you united them all onto a single roster, what would that team look like?

Welcome to the 2025 'Worst Of The Best' Team. Here are the rules: 

– Any NFL team can have a position room picked, but teams can only be picked once
– The objective is to assemble the worst possible roster
– The entire room is under consideration, not just the starter

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Quarterbacks – New Orleans Saints

Included: Spencer Rattler, Tyler Shough (R), Jake Haener

The lack of experience in this room made it a no-brainer for this selection. Shough could very well end up being a good player but he has some major injury questions and is among the oldest rookie prospects in recent memory. The entire quarterback room in New Orleans has less than 300 career passing attempts in the NFL — they're the perfect foundation to build a team around for this exercise. 

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Running Backs – Dallas Cowboys

Included: Javonte Williams, Miles Sanders, Jaydon Blue (R), Phil Mafah (R), Deuce Vaughn

Dallas is welcoming a whole lot of new at running back this year, with four new faces in the room. Are they better than what they were last year with Rico Dowdle serving as the primary runner? I'm not sure. I think there are a number of other strong candidates for the running back position but for full transparency, I wanted to save some of those teams for another position. 

Williams and Sanders are well-seasoned players but among the league's most low-efficiency runners in recent years. 

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Wide Receivers – Las Vegas Raiders

Included: Jakobi Meyers, Jack Bech (R), Tre Tucker, Dont'e Thornton Jr. (R), Collin Johnson, Tommy Mellott (R)

The Raiders were a candidate to call upon at linebacker and cornerback in addition to wide receiver — their inclusion of this room comes down to Meyers being the No. 1 (it's really Brock Bowers but I digress). I love Jack Bech as a future standout as well, but as a rookie coming in and a lot riding on him being successful, Las Vegas will need overachievers to avoid being among the league's least impactful wide receiver rooms in 2025. That is, of course, based off of what things look like on paper right now. 

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Tight Ends – Carolina Panthers

Included: Tommy Tremble, Ja'Tavion Sanders, Mitchell Evans (R)

Full disclosure: I really wanted to use Carolina for linebacker after the team waived veteran Josey Jewell. But I can only use a team once and the jigsaw puzzle of shuffling teams around prompted me to invoke the Panthers here instead. Tremble got a surprisingly handsome contract from the Panthers this offseason; they seem to believe in him. And Sanders can be, in my opinion, a fine "F-tight end" who serves as a flex option in the passing game. 

But the profile of an in-line player leaves you wanting more and Sanders is a very skill-specific player that could put a glass ceiling over his usage long-term. 

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Offensive Line – Houston Texans

Included: Cam Robinson, Laken Tomlinson, Jarrett Patterson, Tytus Howard, Blake Fisher, Ed Ingram, Aireontae Ersery (R), Trent Brown, Juice Scruggs

Houston's offensive line overhaul this offseason is certainly new. But is it better? The chemistry of this unit will ultimately determine that, but having new starters on the left side and new faces among the three primary backups leave to question what kind of chemistry Houston is able to generate amid a new offensive coordinator, too. 

Houston should be fine and their ability to play complementary football should have them well positioned to repeat in the AFC South yet again — but the individual pieces of this rebuilt line offer plenty of questions. 

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Defensive Tackles – Los Angeles Chargers

Included: Da'Shawn Hand, Teair Tart, Otito Ogbonnia, Jamaree Caldwell (R), Justin Eboigbe, Scott Matlock, Christopher Hinton

The Chargers need rookie Jamaree Caldwell to be a big thing straight away. If he's not, this is a hot & cold running unit that could put the Chargers' linebackers at risk of having play in a lot of traffic. Teams with big, physical blocking schemes up front will have a chance to test this unit and the interior DL's ability to stand up to that test is perhaps the biggest question on the roster right now. 

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EDGE Defenders – Tennessee Titans

Included: Arden Key, DreMont Jones, Femi Oladejo (R), Jihad Ward

The most important player out of this group is comfortably Oladejo, who was the team's second-round draft choice in the 2025 NFL Draft. Oladejo was a stack linebacker before this past season at UCLA, which makes his transition to the NFL level extra…complicated. 

This group will be bolstered in real life by the presence of Jeffery Simmons inside. But Simmons is not a package deal when picking the EDGE group worthy of recognition on this list. 

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Stack Linebackers – Arizona Cardinals

Included: Mack Wilson Sr., Akeem Davis-Gaither, Cody Simon, Owen Pappoe, Mykal Walker

I would like to absolutely state that I have bigger issues with the Titans and Panthers off-ball linebackers than I do with Arizona's. You could probably make a case that the Raiders are a worthy candidate as well. But this exercise necessitated those teams to get recognized elsewhere and, as such, Arizona's backers get the call. Rookie Cody Simon could be a wildcard that boosts this group but as of right now he's a Day 3 draft pick behind Akeem Davis-Gaither and Mack Wilson Sr. 

It leaves something to be desired. 

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Cornerbacks – Miami Dolphins

Included: Kader Kohou, Storm Duck, Cam Smith, Kendall Sheffield, Jason Marshall Jr. (R), Ethan Bonner

If you thought the Dolphins' cornerback room was concerning 48 hours ago, imagine the gut punch you must have felt when it was announced that veteran Artie Burns is believed to have suffered a torn ACL on the first day of practice. Miami does have Kader Kohou, a blossoming former UDFA who has played a ton of football in his first three seasons in the NFL. He should be a respectable starter. The other spot? Your guess is as good as mine. 

The Dolphins very clearly see something in someone. And with the injury to Burns, it should not surprised if another signing isn't coming sooner rather than later — perhaps as soon as today. But this group has enough questions as is to be included in this spot. 

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Safeties – Jacksonville Jaguars

Included: Darnell Savage, Eric Murray, Caleb Ransaw (R), Antonio Johnson, Rayuan Lane III (R)

The ceiling of the Jaguars safety room could very well be determined by the play of rookie Caleb Ransaw. He's an explosive athlete and a versatile secondary piece. The floor set by the others in the room does create some concern, though. In real life, the talent of the linebackers is going to need to do some heavy lifting in the middle of the field. 

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