Ranking worst mistakes for all 32 NFL teams since 2020 - ESPN

One move can make or break an NFL team's season. For example, where would the Vikings be right now if they hadn't signed quarterback Sam Darnold last spring? How are the Eagles feeling about the offseason addition of running back Saquon Barkley? In the big picture, the Chiefs trading up to grab quarterback Patrick Mahomes in the 2017 draft probably made the franchise billions of dollars when factoring in local revenue, extra playoff games, increased exposure and the countless fans who are going to grow up supporting the team because they fell in love with football while watching Mahomes.

Those moves have all worked out well for their respective franchises, but others don't go quite as well. I'm going to talk about those moves. I've gone through the NFL's 32 franchises and identified the worst decision each has made over the past five years, going back to the start of 2020. Then, I've ranked those decisions from least damaging to most damaging.

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These decisions cut in all kinds of different directions. Many of them are additions to the roster, either via free agency, the draft or trades. Some are coaching choices. Tampering violations are even in the running. In each case, I'm evaluating the outcome. If the process was clearly bad at the time, that's a bonus, but this is measuring the severity of each wrong choice, not why something happened.

There are a few trends that pop up. Players get drafted at low-ceiling positions. Teams overestimate their ability to sign the right player in free agency. Trades for quarterbacks go horribly wrong. Those failures shouldn't discourage teams from signing free agents or taking big swings on passers, but they do contextualize the risk. Things can go