5 New Look Offenses Going into 2026
October 23, 2025 Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert (10) throws a pass during an NFL, American Football Herren, USA game in Inglewood, California. Mandatory Photo Credit: IMAGO
With the 2026 season slowly approaching, every offense in the NFL has endured changes. But a few stand out from the rest of the crowd, boasting new players to represent the uniform, and rewiring inner philosophies with coordinator changes.
The key to a successful offense in today’s NFL is the ability to adapt; both to the everchanging flow of a game, and to the entire broad structure of the league. This previous offseason was a testimony of that, and teams that struggled to efficiently move the ball prior have made the necessary moves to catch them up to speed with the exam that is the modern NFL. More than the teams listed below hyperfocused on such, but the next 5 have taken the most aggressive swings in attempts to do so, strictly based on moves made in this previous offseason.
Philadelphia Eagles
What makes Philadelphia’s offense so interesting going into 2026 isn’t some truckload of new names brought in to outplay the teams around them, but the importance of the few moves made offensively. In 2025, The Eagles 11-6 season ended in a wild card exit to the 49ers, and a large part of that blame was placed on the shoulders of offensive coordinator at the time Kevin Patullo, rightfully so.
Patullo’s mishaps were an issue for the Eagles throughout the entire season, with the defense bailing them out on far too many occasions. The bland play designs and predictable route concepts were enough for even star receivers such as DeVonta Smith and AJ Brown to see regression in their production. The idea of the Eagles’ offense with Hurts at the helm has been to keep the run game and passing game as close as possible. When done right in 2022 and 2024, they’ve topped multiple offensive efficiency charts and appeared in 2 Super Bowls, winning one. But when the further apart the two are, the more clunky the offense gets, which led to the collapses of 2023 and 2025.
New offensive coordinator Sean Mannion has been verbal on trying to change that, understanding that the RPO is the bread and butter of the Eagles’ offense. His time in Green Bay working with quarterbacks and the depths of the passing game gave him a respectable understanding of the benefits of getting the ball out quick, while also maintaining a true threat on the ground. For a team like the Eagles built almost specifically for that type of offense, Mannion brings the perfect mind.
The elephant in the room is the other receiver spot next to DeVonta Smith. In his 4 seasons with Philadelphia AJ Brown was consistently one of the best pass catchers in the entire league, but the trade-off was the amount of drama and locker room tension that came with that. The Eagles decided enough was enough, and sent him to New England to reunite with Mike Vrabel.
USC WR Makai Lemon offers a new playstyle, one that isn’t bound to beating corners with your physique on the perimeter and underneath. Lemon brings flexibility to an Eagles passing game that takes pride in receivers who make their marks with agility and after the catch ability. To ice the cake, he can also produce in the slot and turn short yardage catches into chunk plays, a trait that will be very comfortable for Jalen Hurts to pour into.
New York Giants
Truth be told, the Giants have been one of the most convoluted offenses in the last decade. QB inconsistencies, coaching blunders, passive swings at the wide receiver position, injuries, and many more factors have kept the Giants in a hole.
2025 was rather interesting for the Giants offense. Year 2 of life without Saquon Barkley saw fun connections and mini-breakouts interrupted by injury. Jaxson Dart wasn’t by any means one of the top signal callers in the league, but the clear improvement at the QB position was obvious with him at the helm. He brings the necessary measure of creativity to an offense that has been plagued by predictability and stagnation.
Right off the bat, Malik Nabers and Cam Skattebo are two notable names that will make their return to the lineup this season, following gruesome season ending injuries against the Chargers and Eagles last season. Both have shown lots of promise in the time they have been on the field so fans can only be hopeful of them returning to an extent of that production this upcoming season.
As far as external assets acquired, the Giants bring in former Chiefs OC Matt Nagy, a signing that rightfully has given many fans around the league pause. His time in Kansas City is one he’d like to put behind him, as the offense adopted a passive nature and regressed like nobody expected it. It didn’t help that the Chiefs never had an alpha pass catcher outside of aging Travis Kelce, but the usage of the players he did have didn’t match their skillsets like you’d want it to.
Now Nagy inherits a key role in Jaxson Dart’s development, and the dynamic between the two should be rather interesting. Dart is a very gaudy player, so the key to a potential breakout season for him will be how Nagy chooses to work with that.
With losing Wan’Dale Robinson in free agency their leading receiver from 2025, the Giants took a very quantity centered approach in free agency. Calvin Austin, Darnell Mooney, Isaiah Likely, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and Odell Beckham Jr. The idea is depth behind Nabers, who’s already proven to be one of the best receivers in the league. But New York may be making a mistake with the overreliance of Nabers, and only time will tell.
Tennessee Titans
Cam Ward captured everyone’s heart last season, making seemingly impossible throws in crowded pockets only for the ball to slip through a receiver’s fingers. Its obvious the Titans need to dedicate their team building philosophies around him while simultaneously sharpening his play as he continues to grow in the NFL.
To check off the individual development box they hired former Giants HC Brian Daboll as their new offensive coordinator, hoping to wring out the work he did with Josh Allen, everyone’s favorite project QB success story. There’s many highs and lows with Daboll as a head coach, but limiting him to only the OC role and giving him more intimate time with players could prove to work well. Cam Ward is another player of raw talent in Daboll’s hands and in the past he’s shown he knows what to do when entrusted.
With the receiver room being as notably bad as it was in 2025, the Titans took many necessary steps to fix that, adding Wan’Dale Robinson and drafting Ohio State prospect Carnell Tate 4th overall. These two additions work beautifully hand in hand due to the complementary playstyles that they provide to Daboll and Ward’s offense.
With the amount of scrambling Ward has done already, don’t be surprised if Daboll this season implements designed QB runs into the playbook. Cam Ward has always showcased mature mobility so blending this into designs that directly benefit the offense would be a smart path for Daboll to go down; especially considering the positive effects it can have on a run game that is also a question mark going into the season.
Some of the most difficult tests for Tennessee are well within arm’s reach, with defenses such as the Texans and Jaguars in their division, looking to battle 4x a year in total. Close quarters competition sharpens quality of play, and the Titans new offensive schemes will be immediately put to the test against some of the best defensive units in football.
Los Angeles Chargers
Throughout Justin Herbert’s tenure, we’ve seen the Chargers offense take many different angles rooted through many different players. But in the Jim Harbaugh era, the run game is now more important than ever.
The trade-off? The Chargers pass game lacked any sort of modern creativity, and over-depended on individual talent as opposed to schemes that benefited the certain strengths of their players. There were certainly stretches of dominant play from Quentin Johnston and Ladd McConkey the year before, but the consistent week-to-week alternatives for Justin Herbert to choose from just weren’t there.
So introduce former Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel, whose name alone puts him in rooms offensive minds dream of being in. The blend of the traditional, “my guy is better than yours” run first philosophies of Jim Harbaugh, and the explosive, technical, and modern play designs of Mike McDaniel have the potential to generate an elite coach-coordinator tandem.
What sells McDaniel as an OC for the Chargers even more, is the raw talent he’s receiving to work with. Justin Herbert is by far the best QB he’s worked with since Matt Ryan from 2015-16, and his top of the league arm talent is going to do nothing short of please McDaniel and open up more fluidity in the offense. Combine that with Ladd McConkey, who thrived in 2024 when Keenan Allen wasn’t present, fully allowing him to get comfortable in the slot, and the idea of a reliable and consistent QB-WR duo is alive.
The question mark with McDaniel is his continuity throughout the course of the season, and if he’s able to keep that unpredictable creativity that usually phases out in the later parts of the year. But the difference between him as an OC vs as a head coach, is the additional support of the coaching staff he can lean back on. Harbaugh and McDaniel have this ‘opposites attract’ relationship that just works, due to the names on the Chargers offensive personnel and the high levels of success both have seen in their individual visions for NFL offenses. We may be on the verge of one of the most interesting HC-OC dynamics we’ve seen in a while.
Las Vegas Raiders
Of course, the team who drafted a QB first overall has to be on this list, but let's take a minute to understand what exactly Fernando Mendoza is being drafted into. The Raiders on paper boast two of the top NCAA football players of their eras on their roster in Ashton Jeanty and Brock Bowers, one of which is slowly finding his footing in the NFL, and other having already accomplished such.
The box of modern creativity is checked off as well. Super Bowl winning offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak who played a major role in JSN’s OPOY season has taken the helm as the Raiders new head coach, while also absorbing playcalling duties. Expect the roles of Brock Bowers and newly acquired WR Jalen Nailor to quite literally expand, as no other offensive mind stretches the field with their route concepts like Kubiak does.
As far as the run game is concerned, having a strong minded passing philosophy in Kubiak is already a plus. But the Raiders made one of the biggest moves of the offseason, signing former Ravens star Tyler Linderbaum to a 3-year, $81M contract. The strength of the interior offensive line adds solid reliability to a unit that was relatively weak last season.
While Mendoza likely won’t see the field until we’re well into the season, you have to admire the changes made by Vegas. The blueprint spells out a long term project, that has already taken the necessary steps to achieving that.