With free agency mostly in the rearview and the draft a month away, it’s a good time to reset and survey the biggest unresolved NFL offseason storylines across the league.
We’ve already broken down our favorite free agent signings, our least favorite (contracts, at least), the teams that helped themselves most this month and the most intriguing remaining free agents.
For now, we’ll leave the NFL draft out of this as that is its own matter entirely, and there’s plenty of time to dissect it every which way before, during and after.
Outside of draft decisions, these are the other biggest remaining NFL offseason questions.
Top Remaining NFL Offseason Storylines
1. Will Aaron Rodgers return to the Pittsburgh Steelers?
It truly is remarkable just how much Rodgers managed to replicate his Hall of Fame predecessor Brett Favre.
They presently rank fourth (Favre) and fifth (Rodgers) in career passing yards and fourth (Rodgers) and fifth (Favre) in career touchdown passes.
Favre won three MVPs and a Super Bowl with the Green Bay Packers, then had a humbling stint with the New York Jets before making one final career stop with the Minnesota Vikings while bouncing back a bit at the end.
Rodgers won four MVPs and a Super Bowl with the Packers, then had a humbling stint with the Jets before showing some rejuvenation in moving on to the Pittsburgh Steelers. (The Vikings really should have signed Rodgers last offseason to truly complete the symmetry.)
But more to the point here, both also made a habit of prolonged offseason deliberations and deferred decisions on their future.
Rodgers didn’t sign with the Steelers until June 6 last year, and he’s once again slow-playing whether he wants to retire or return.
Now that all of the other logical landing spots — playoff-caliber teams in need of a starting quarterback — have their plan in place for the position (including, yes, the Vikings), Rodgers’ decision is really purely about whether he wants to return to Pittsburgh for another year.
He made it clear how much Mike Tomlin factored into his decision to sign there a year ago, and now Tomlin is gone. But rejoining the Steelers would now mean reuniting with his former Packers coach Mike McCarthy, with whom he won his lone Super Bowl title (after the 2010 season).
Pittsburgh has also upgraded its wide receiver corps with the trade for Michael Pittman Jr., giving Rodgers an enticing tandem of top targets in returning No. 1 WR DK Metcalf and Pittman, who averaged 89 catches and 950 yards the last five seasons.
At this point, it would be a surprise if Rodgers doesn’t return for one more season. He was solid enough in 2025 — 3,322 yards, 24 TDs and 7 INTs while getting to the playoffs — and Pittsburgh could be a better team in 2026.
It’s also notable that the Steelers were not reported to be involved with any of the free agent quarterbacks, and while they may indeed think highly of 2025 sixth-round pick Will Howard, it’s unlikely they are ready to go all-in on him.
There’s no telling when Rodgers will announce his decision, and it’s possible the Steelers would still be able to pivot to a veteran free agent like Kirk Cousins if needed, but it makes too much sense to expect the future Hall of Famer back in black and gold.
2. Who will A.J. Brown play for in 2026?
This is another question with huge ramifications for the 2026 NFL season that is both unsettled yet also becoming less suspenseful by the day — seemingly.
There is so much mounting buzz that Brown is going to end up with the New England Patriots in a post-June 1 trade from the Philadelphia Eagles (for salary cap purposes) that any other outcome would seem a surprise now.
But nothing is official until it’s official, nothing is done until it actually happens and June 1 leaves a lot of time for anything to change or develop that might alter that potential outcome.
So for now, Brown’s future is absolutely one of the most impactful unanswered questions hovering over the league.
He has six 1,000-yard seasons in seven years in the NFL and asserted himself as a true star No. 1 WR his first two years in Philadelphia when he posted lines of 88 catches, 1,496 yards and 11 TDs in 2022 and 106-1,456-7 in 2023. He followed with 1,000-yard seasons the next two years as well despite playing just 13 games in 2024 for a run-first offense focused around a 2,000-yard rusher in Saquon Barkley and then the dysfunction of 2025 with embattled offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo getting fired after one year on the job.
Meanwhile, we laid out the case earlier this week why the Patriots’ entire offseason hinges on landing Brown now.
3. Will Micah Parsons be ready for the start of the 2026 season?
Perhaps the most impactful injury of the entire 2025 NFL season (the Chiefs were already sunk when Patrick Mahomes tore his ACL) was Parsons’ season-ending ACL injury for the Green Bay Packers in Week 15.
Green Bay had traded two first-round draft picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark to the Dallas Cowboys for Parsons just before the season, and the elite edge rusher was in the midst of another excellent year with 12.5 sacks and 27 QB pressures in 14 games.
His impact went beyond the raw numbers, though, as Green Bay was looking like one of the better defenses in the league and a true Super Bowl contender before the injury. To underscore that point, Parsons still finished third in NFL Defensive Player of the Year voting, and the Packers never quite recovered without him.
Given that the injury came in mid-December, it’s just too soon to know how much the impact of it will linger into the 2026 season as well — whether Parsons will be ready for training camp or the first game and whether he’ll even be able to regain his peak form at any point in his first season back.
4. Does Maxx Crosby stay in Las Vegas?
Crosby, the five-time Pro Bowl edge rusher, has already been part of the biggest trade of the NFL offseason (briefly, at least) and the biggest controversy of it as well.
The Baltimore Ravens’ decision to back out of the trade to send two first-round draft picks to the Las Vegas Raiders for Crosby based on medical concerns about his surgically-repaired knee — only to then immediately sign free agent edge rusher Trey Hendrickson instead — has raised questions about how and what actually transpired.
Crosby vented his own frustrations about it, saying “I’m (bleeping) livid.”
All the while, he’s again and still a Raider for now — an out-of-place veteran star player on a team in the midst of a total rebuild.
Crosby, who had previously made it clear he wanted a trade out of the organization, has since stated his commitment to remaining with the Raiders. For now.
Las Vegas isn’t going to want to accept a substantially lesser deal than it thought it executed with the Ravens, and if it can’t get picks in this upcoming draft next month then there would be less incentive to even try to move him before the season.
But anything can happen, and Crosby’s status will continue to be a source of intrigue, especially if the rebuilding Raiders get off to a slow start in 2026.
5. Does Deshaun Watson get another shot as Cleveland’s starting quarterback?
If ever a quarterback had worn out his welcome in a town it was Watson in Cleveland.
The Browns made arguably the worst trade in NFL history to acquire Watson four years ago, giving first-round draft picks in 2022, 2023 and 2024, a third-round pick in 2023 and fourth-round picks in 2022 and 2024 to the Houston Texans, and then giving Watson a new fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract. Fully guaranteed!
This despite Watson already facing more than 20 civil suits from female massage therapists alleging inappropriate behavior by the quarterback. That had already led to the Texans not playing him during the 2021 season and would further lead to an official 11-game suspension in Watson’s first season with the Browns.
And then when he did play for the team, he was a shell of his former Pro Bowl form. He’s played just 19 games in four years for the team due to the suspension, a season-ending shoulder injury in 2023 and a torn Achilles in 2024 that also kept him out all of last season.
Last year, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam even publicly admitted the team took a “big swing and miss” with Watson.
But could Watson now end up as the team’s starting quarterback in 2026 somehow after all of that?
Surely not, right?
Right?!
Well, the Browns and new head coach Todd Monken aren’t ruling it out — publicly, at least.
So for now, it looks like Watson is going to at least compete with second-year QB Shedeur Sanders in training camp.
As crazy as that is to consider.
