Week 8of the2025 NFL seasonis here,and insiders Jeremy Fowler and Dan Graziano have been making calls to sources around the league for the latest news and buzz on key situations.
This week, they asked around about two struggling AFC East teams, the 0-7 Jets and the 1-6 Dolphins. Will there be changes in New York, starting at QB? And how many veteran Dolphins could be dealt elsewhere between now and the Nov. 4 trade deadline if the struggles continue?
Jeremy and Dan also checked in on the resurgent Chiefs. Now that the offense is starting to hum, what moves could Kansas City make before the deadline to set up another run to the Super Bowl? They also took a look at some interesting offseason quarterback contract situations and how teams might navigate them.
It's all here, as our national reporters answer big questions and empty their notebooks heading into Week 8.
Jump to:br/>What's next for the Jets?br/>Could the Chiefs add at deadline?br/>Dolphins who could be dealtbr/>Offseason QB contract situations
Fowler: Changes should be expected, but I don't believe that currently applies to head coach Aaron Glenn. The Jets did an exhaustive coaching search that landed on Glenn, one of the most sought-after candidates in the 2025 cycle. It hasn't worked thus far, and he has had his share of miscues. But the Jets have remained competitive despite their struggles at quarterback. Five of their seven losses are by a combined 19 points, and the defense appears to be on the upswing after a slow start.
I'm not putting the offensive struggles entirely on Glenn. This is one of the NFL's most anemic attacks, so a change in offensive personnel or the coaching staff must be a viable option, right, Dan? I'm here at the owners meetings and Jets owner Woody Johnson sounds done with the Fields experiment.
Graziano: Glenn is at least considering sitting Fields for Tyrod Taylor, since he addressed that topic directly at his Monday news conference. He said he hadn't decided yet and wanted to consult other coaches who'd dealt with similar situations. One of the issues is that the 36-year-old Taylor obviously isn't the long-term answer for this franchise, while Fields theoretically could be if he cleans up some of his issues. If the Jets sit him for Taylor now, they're effectively giving up on a quarterback to whom they guaranteed $30 million in the offseason and indicating the search for a long-term solution will pick up again next spring. That's a tough way to go through the rest of the season.
That's a long way of saying I'm not sure what Glenn will decide or, honestly, what the right answer is. If the Jets keep starting Fields and he continues to look lost and overwhelmed, they risk losing the rest of the team. If they sit Fields, they've decided before Halloween that their most consequential offseason roster decision was a bust. Personally, I don't see the point of going with Taylor. They're 0-7 and not making the playoffs. I'd find a way to keep Fields viable and get to the end of the season so you can get a full-season sample on which to judge him. Of course, that's easy for me to say. The losses aren't going on my record.
Fowler: Interestingly, I've talked to multiple NFL coaches who believe the Jets should have leaned heavily into Fields' running ability earlier. He has rushed 42 times in six starts this season, averaging three designed rushes per game over his past three. In Week 1, Fields had nine designed runs, which helped the Jets to a 32-point outing. From 2022 to 2024, Fields averaged roughly 10 rushes per game as a full-time starter.
"That's what he's most comfortable with," an NFL assistant coach who has worked with Fields said. "And then you can throw him off play-action with more success. I don't care if you use a high-school-style offense, but he needs to run."
It's probably moot now. If Glenn wants to eventually make a move, he should probably do it now. And Johnson scorching Fields publicly makes turning back to him a challenge. I'm just pointing out that maybe it could have worked if they used him as more of a dual threat. Don't expect fireworks with Taylor at this stage, but he can at least operate a rhythm-and-timing passing game.
With the trade deadline less than two weeks away, expect the Jets to consider dealing veterans to acquire draft capital and build for the future. Edge rusher Jermaine Johnson, corner Michael Carter II and running back Breece Hall are among the options generating interest. What should the Jets do?
Graziano: Before getting to the trade question, I agree with your idea that they need to use Fields as a runner more. That was tough to do against the Broncos, who limit opposing rushing QBs better than any team, but they should have been able to do it Sunday against the Panthers.
As for your deadline question, I also agree that the Jets probably will be active sellers, so the group around Fields or Taylor from Nov. 5 on could be a bit depleted. This all sounds very bleak, and I must believe the Jets' front office and coaching staff are working on ways to make the second half of the season tolerable to get some real evaluations of the roster. If they don't come out of Glenn's first year having identified the players who are and aren't a part of their future plan, then this really would be a wasted season.
Graziano: The Chiefs are almost always active at the trade deadline. It seems as if they add a receiver most years. But assuming everyone stays healthy, they seem to like what they have at that position. I also don't get the sense they're desperate to add a running back, as has been speculated by many on the outside since the season began.
If the Chiefs add at the deadline, I expect it to be on defense — maybe a veteran edge rusher — or possibly the offensive line. Rookie tackle Josh Simmons'situation continues to be strange and murky, and a couple of other linemen left Sunday's game against the Raiders because of injury. No one really noticed, since the Raiders weren't putting up a fight, but if guard Trey Smith's back injury turned into something that caused him to sit out time, that would be a tough hole to fill for an offense that's really starting to click.
Fowler: The injuries to Smith and right tackle Jawaan Taylor seem minor, and I sense that Kansas City is comfortable on offense. The Chiefs have long been planning for a receiving corps of Rashee Rice, Xavier Worthy and Hollywood Brown, so it's no coincidence that the trio amassed 18 of the team's 34 passing targets Sunday, with Rice having 10 by himself. JuJu Smith-Schuster and Tyquan Thornton are good complementary options. Running back seems less settled. But, to your point, Dan, Isiah Pacheco is picking up steam (108 yards on 27 carries the past two weeks) and rookie Brashard Smith's workload is slowly increasing.
But I do think the Chiefs could add defensive linemen. They are depleted on the interior.
Graziano: They have added defensive linemen in the past (Melvin Ingram in 2021 a prime example). That's the type of move I could see. Since arriving in Kansas City, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has a strong track record of getting the defense into better shape as the season progresses and having it primed to do big things in the postseason. So, he has earned a lot of trust. But adding personnel up front is never a bad idea. How about the rest of that defense?
Fowler: The Chiefs' cornerback room is one to watch entering the deadline. Free agent addition Kristian Fulton is a healthy scratch. Could they find a way out of his two-year, $20 million deal? Rookie Nohl Williams is emerging, and fourth-year playerJoshua Williams could have trade value.
Fowler: I'll say two: a pass rusher and one other. The Dolphins are getting calls on wide receiver Jaylen Waddle but don't have plans to trade him at this point. That can always change, but with Tyreek Hill injured, Waddle is a building block who can translate to any offense, which helps for a team that appears headed for major transition. He's owed $36 million over 2025-26, which is reasonable for high-end players at his position.
The Dolphins haveJaelan PhillipsandBradley Chubbto deal, with Phillips having the most trade value of Miami's edge rushers. Several personnel departments have been enamored with his trajectory, which was derailed by injury. Miami doesn't appear ready to give the 2026 free agent an extension. It could be similar to Washington tradingChase Young and Montez Sweat at the deadline two years ago. Running back Jaylen Wright is also a viable trade option, and safety Minkah Fitzpatrick is on my radar. So, while I'm not so sure a complete house-cleaning is in order, it would surprise me if the Dolphins stood pat. This is a team with roster concerns, and those eight 2026 draft picks won't address them all.
Graziano: I agree with you about Waddle, particularly since his contract makes him a tougher to trade. Wright, who has slipped behind rookie Ollie Gordon II on the depth chart, could also be a player who moves. There will be teams interested in picking up a running back, with the Chargers and Texans being two teams I've heard mentioned. And there are sure to be others.
Either way, this Dolphins season has not gone the way anyone hoped it would and there's a lot of chatter about significant change, which we touched on in this space last week. If they're looking ahead to next year as a reset/rebuild scenario, they're going to listen to calls on almost anyone. My biggest question is what they'll do at quarterback. Tua Tagovailoa has $54 million in guaranteed money coming in 2026 and seems to have regressed significantly. Can Miami rebuild around him with any degree of confidence? Is there a glimmer of a chance that the Dolphins could package him with a draft pick and get a team to trade for him?
Trade-deadline talk is easy when we just look at guys whose contract situations make them expendable for a team going nowhere. But I'd love to know what happens if they decide to blow things all the way up.
Fowler: Observers can see where this is probably headed with coach Mike McDaniel barring a turnaround, but the Tagovailoa conversation is more layered. Trading that contract doesn't seem feasible. Miami can work around the salary cap, but the guarantee is an albatross. No team wants to absorb a fraction of that because they don't have to (think Russell Wilson in Denver two years ago). Any form of release triggers a $54 million payout, minus offsets.
What made Tagovailoa productive — and what McDaniel helped bring out of him — was processing and decision-making. He thinks through the game well and throws with anticipation. He's missing that touch right now, and after placing teammates directly under a teal-and-orange-colored bus in a post-Week-6 news conference, it's fair to wonder whether he has lost the trust of the locker room, too. His teammates certainly played Sunday's gameas if he had.
And it wasn't long ago — August 2024 — when Tagovailoa aired out Brian Flores in what felt like a payback attempt. So Tagovailoa is a quarterback who is regressing, essentially can't be hit due to previous head injuries and has publicly divulged what happens behind the scenes in an NFL locker room multiple times. That doesn't sound like an attractive profile, but this is the era of reclamation project quarterbacks. And Tagovailoa has had stretches of high efficiency. Maybe Miami runs it back with him. What is the best option for Tagovailoa and the Dolphins moving forward, Dan?
Graziano: Given the contractual commitment they've made to Tagovailoa, the best option is to get him playing the way he did when McDaniel first arrived. If the coach can't make that happen, it stands to reason they could look for a replacement. If that comes to pass, the Dolphins have major decisions to make about Tagovailoa and the direction of the franchise. A new coach probably would have some say in the decision on whether to keep the quarterback or take the dead-money hit. But if Tagovailoa is still there next season and McDaniel is not, a new coach would be tasked with finding a way to maximize his abilities the way McDaniel did initially. But if you're doing this dance for the second time in four years, maybe it's not the coach who's the problem.
Graziano: The first name I thought of was Lamar Jackson. Because of the bonus structure in the extension he signed two years ago, Jackson's cap number balloons to $74.5 million in 2026. Sure, the Ravens could do a restructure and knock that number down into the mid-$30 million range. But restructures just push a cap issue into future years, and you wonder if the better route is a new deal, especially if Jackson is uncomfortable making less per year than guys such asTrevor Lawrence and Tagovailoa.
At some point, Baltimore is going to have to do something with Jackson's deal. But there are a number of factors that make this situation even more interesting. First is the fact that the Ravens are 1-5 and Jackson has sat out the past two games because of a hamstring injury. They hope to have him back this week, though that's not a certainty after he sat out Monday's practice. The schedule eases in the second half of the season, but if the Ravens don't recover and at least make a run at the division title, how does that affect their major player personnel decisions moving forward?
The second thing is that Jackson still doesn't have an agent, which has made negotiations difficult in the past. If the Ravens have to renegotiate to get next year's cap number down but Jackson doesn't care to, there's no intermediary to work out those differences. I imagine this all works out in the end, as it did last time. But you'll remember it got dicey the last time and obviously could again for a number of reasons.
Fowler: Considering very few people on the planet can do the things Jackson does (if any), the Ravens should get ahead of the rapidly ballooning quarterback market whenever feasible. His value went up after Baltimore managed only 13 points in two games without him.
Baker Mayfield's situation also intrigues me. He's due $43 million in cash in 2025, yet there's an argument he's underpaid. Mayfield, a 2027 free agent, is producing at a high clip despite significant injuries at offensive line, running back and wide receiver. Not many quarterbacks are throwing the ball with more confidence. The Bucs and Mayfield will play out the season and can work on an extension after that. The Bucs are projected to have around $48 million in 2026 cap space, which they can easily lower by reworking Mayfield's $52 million hit.
Both sides are happy with this arrangement. Mayfield has proof of concept, which means his per-year average should probably have a "5" in front of it. The wild card is the Glazer family, which has a hasn't always spent big money on players. But Mayfield could look to add a tax on this deal, due to leverage and the below-market deal on which he's currently playing.
Graziano: Speaking of below-market deals, I'll throw it back again to the QB extension class of 2023 and bring up Jalen Hurts. He went first that offseason, before Jackson, Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert got their deals. As a result, all of those guys make more than Hurts. Since signing that deal, Hurts has gone 32-12 and won a Super Bowl MVP. Hurts is signed through 2028, with $51.5 million fully guaranteed for 2026, so there might not be a need to discuss an extension this coming offseason. But he's also the 11th-highest paid quarterback in the league by average annual salary, behind a lot of guys who've accomplished a lot less than he has.
I wouldn't be surprised to see the Eagles address this situation next spring or summer. I would be surprised if Hurts wanted to go first this time, rather than wait to see what happens with Jackson and others.
Fowler: How Hurts plays over the next 10 games plus the playoffs could determine the path forward there. If he catalyzes another deep playoff run, the Eagles would be smart to approach him. His passing from the pocket has been erratic, to be sure. But all he does is win, and he's a plus in the toughness and intangibles categories.
We also can't forget about Matthew Stafford, who is owed $40 million in 2026, the last year of his deal. That number is not guaranteed right now but locks in on the fifth day of the new league year. The Rams and Stafford seem to be doing this yearly dance in whichthey consider alternatives before returning to each other. Stafford trade buzz dominated the last combine, but he ultimately did not want to leave the Rams. The situation could reach a boiling point again this offseason if Stafford continues to play lights out. His deal probably needs to be addressed in some form but both parties have played this perfectly, creating a sometimes uneasy but ultimately flourishing relationship.
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