The 2026 NFL regular season is right around the corner, and it's about time we start evaluating lineups around the league. The Seattle Seahawks were not expected to win the Super Bowl in dominant fashion last year, but the emergence of this Mike Macdonald "Dark Side" defense and the breakout campaign from Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba took Seattle from playoff hopeful to best team in the league. Which team will surprise in 2026?
CBS Sports' Jordan Dajani and Tyler Sullivan recently took the temperature of where every roster in the NFL clocks in -- on paper. They also identified one good aspect of the starting lineup one bad aspect, and one lingering question. Here are their rankings for the top half of the league -- from 16-1.
And in case you missed it, roster No. 32-17 is available here. The good: Quarterback -- Jordan Love continues to fly under the radar when we talk about elite quarterbacks in the NFL. The Packers signal caller tossed 23 touchdowns and just six interceptions last season.
Only he and Matthew Stafford recorded at least nine wins, 20 passing touchdowns and fewer than 12 interceptions in each of the last three seasons. Love was also sensational last postseason, albeit in a wild card loss to Chicago. There, he threw for 323 yards and four touchdowns with no turnovers.
The bad: Pass rusher -- Micah Parsons' knee is the only reason this category qualifies. The All-Pro pass rusher is expected to miss the first chunk of the season as he continues to rehab his torn ACL, and it's unclear how the group will hold up in his absence. In the four full games without Parsons last season, Green Bay was 0-4, allowed more touchdowns per game, and, for this conversation, saw their sack numbers cut by nearly two-thirds (from 2.4 sacks per game with Parsons to 1.0 without him).
Fellow Packers edge rusher Lukas Van Ness has recorded just 8.5 sacks over his three-year career. They did select Penn State edge Dani Dennis-Sutton in the fourth round, but it's hard to expect him to be a major contributor right out of the gate. The question: Wide receiver -- Green Bay tidied up its receiver room, letting Romeo Doubs walk in free agency while trading Dontayvion Wicks to the Eagles.
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