At 4pm ET Tuesday, November 2, NFL teams will be stuck with their stars.
That’s the date of this season’s trade deadline, the last chance for teams to make meaningful roster-building moves outside of the waiver wire and whatever languishing free agents persist through the winter months. While traditionally this date has paled in comparison to the action-packed deadlines in the NBA and MLB, we’ve seen an uptick in mid-season moves from a league that typically prefers to do its wheeling and dealing in the spring.
Last year, eight deals took place in the final week leading up to the official end of trade season. None were very sexy — unless you like accountable linebacker types, in which case you had Avery Williamson, Kwon Alexander, and Kiko Alonso all changing teams — but each featured draft considerations in exchange for experienced talent. That’s a trend that will continue in 2021.
So far, the league has played steward to a handful of minor deals involving veteran contributors. Stephon Gilmore became a Carolina Panther for a sixth-round selection. Zach Ertz left the Philadelphia Eagles. The New York Jets traded an honest-to-goodness draft pick to re-acquire Joe Flacco, because the football gods demanded their favorite jester dance for them.
Those could be a sad MRE waiting to be eaten on patrol as we dream of bigger things. Or they could be the appetizer for a veritable feast of trade action. Let’s be optimists and hope it’s the latter. Here are the deals I want to see as both a fan of good football and trade deadline chaos.