The 2021 NFL trade deadline has come and gone. It was, by NFL standards, a fizzling sparkler compared to the fireworks that could have been.
The list of talent traded in season this fall reads like a 2016 Pro Bowl ballot. Von Miller was freed from the Denver Broncos’ rebuild. Melvin Ingram went to the Kansas City Chiefs to serve as a band-aid for a team in need of surgery. Zach Ertz moved from Philadelphia to the opposite of Philadelphia.
Several other big names wound up on reported trading blocks, only to stay home. Deshaun Watson is a Houston Texan and is likely to remain that way until he settles his legal issues. DeSean Jackson will have to continue toiling as the Rams’ WR4, assuming Los Angeles doesn’t release him. Expensive defenders like Trey Flowers and Xavien Howard won’t get the changes of scenery they may have needed to rebound to proper form.
So who won the trading deadline? Who failed to capitalize on the last gasp of non-waiver movement for the 2021 season? We’ve got some knee jerk reactions that will assuredly age well.