The NFL trade deadline is Tuesday, October 29th at 4:00 p.m. ET. That means we are at the point where teams need to make actual decisions instead of putting out feelers and negotiating for extra value. We’ve already seen what feels like more trades than normal ramping up to the deadline. Now, teams either fall into one of two categories: contenders looking to add the last piece for a Super Bowl run or teams who are looking to rebuild long-term. We’ll focus on the sellers first.
Miami Dolphins
The Dolphins should trade everything that isn’t nailed down. Trade Davante Parker. Trade Ryan Fitzpatrick. Trade Xavien Howard. There’s no point in a full-tear down unless everything is sold at a price that benefits the rebuild. The Dolphins won’t be good for a few years. Keeping veterans around doesn’t make sense.
New York Jets
The Jets season started with some optimism. That feeling should be gone by now after the Jets are off to a 1-6 start. They can trade Robby Anderson for some picks. They already got rid of Leonard Williams trading him to the Giants. No one is taking Le’Veon Bell’s contract, but some team might take Bilal Powell or Ty Montgomery if they are desperate for a backup running back. It’s not the Jets’ year. They might as well move on to next season. One problem is that we don’t know if Adam Gase will be around for next year or not.
Denver Broncos
It’s going to be tough to trade Joe Flacco and his contract. It won’t be tough to trade Chris Harris or Derek Wolfe. It might even be time to do the unthinkable and try and cash in by trading Von Miller for a boatload of picks. This trade deadline may be the best way for John Elway to keep his job and buy some time by selling the future, but some Denver fans may not want him to hang around if he unloads the team’s talent for a boatload of draft picks.
Cincinnati Bengals
The Bengals aren’t going anywhere this year. They are 0-8 with no hope in sight. They could demand a ransom for A.J. Green. Why wouldn’t the Packers, Bills, or Patriots make a move for the former All-Pro? The problem is that the Bengals never trade anyone, period. They should also look to see if they can get anything for Andy Dalton. They won’t though.
Washington Redskins
The Redskins are finally listening to offers for Trent Williams. That’s about three months too late, to be honest. They could also look to trade Ryan Kerrigan, Josh Norman or Adrian Peterson. There’s no reason to keep aging veterans on a team that is clearly years away from contending in the NFC.
Other teams that could sell
Atlanta Falcons: Fire the coach. Trade any player that’s not Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, or Grady Jarrett.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: The Bucs are in perpetual rebuilding mode. O.J. Howard hasn’t worked out. He could be moved to a team that liked his potential a few years ago.
Arizona Cardinals: Patrick Peterson has been rumored as trade bait for a while and he wanted out of Arizona earlier this year.
