Earlier this week, the NFL had its annual trade deadline, a typically underwhelming event in which a few teams here and there make a couple of mediocre trades to acquire players that will marginally improve their chances of making a playoff push. It’s not common for teams to break the bank for difference-making players, with the deadline usually reserved for role players and older veterans being traded for 6th or 7th round picks to help bolster a roster of a playoff-bound team that is worried about staying healthy and competitive down the stretch. This year, however, we saw some huge blockbuster trades that reshaped the NFL landscape, the playoff race, and future NFL drafts.
With all the crazy trades we saw, including two big ones involving the Colts, I thought I could do a spiritual sequel to my earlier Madden 26 Trade Deadline Prediction article and take a deep dive into these trades using the Madden trading system. In case you don’t know, the Madden trading system is the trade simulation system built into Madden Franchise Mode, laughably flawed and broken, but still one of the more entertaining and truly fascinating elements of the game.
The Process
As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, the Madden Trading system puts too much emphasis on current player value, making younger players and draft picks (which, in reality, are among the most valuable assets in football) appear incredibly undervalued by comparison.
As we’ll see below, every trade made on trade deadline day wouldn’t have been accepted in Madden by the team that is trading away the highlighted player (referenced going forward as the “seller”) and would require the team that is trading for the highlighted player (referenced going forward as the “buyer”) to offer much more in value.
The question I had going into this experiment is: which trade was most likely to succeed in Madden, and which buyer got the best deal according to Madden 26?
Colts Trade For Sauce Gardner
- Colts got: CB Sauce Gardner
- Jets got: 2026 1st round pick, 2027 1st round pick, WR Adonai Mitchell
- Trade bar: 60% full
This was one of two huge blockbusters in which the Jets sold off a multi-time Pro Bowler to a team in desperate need of defensive playmaking. This trade, because it included another active player going back to the seller, was actually not too far off from being successful in the game, as both the 1st round picks are considered high value in Madden’s trade logic. Unfortunately for the buyers here, Sauce Gardner is also considered highly valuable with a 90+ overall rating.
To complete the trade in Madden, I had to add Grover Stewart, a 2026 2nd-round pick, and a 2026 4th-round pick to the original trade.
Cowboys Trade For Quinnen Williams
- Cowboys got: DT Quinnen Williams
- Jets got: 2026 2nd round pick, 2027 1st round pick, DT Mazi Smith
Trade bar: 75% full
Of all the trades on Tuesday, this trade was the most likely to succeed using Madden’s trade logic which ultimately means the Cowboys probably gave up too much for Quinnen Williams given that the Trade system that resoundly rejects any attempt to by “buyer” teams to use draft picks and young players to trade for established veterans nearly agreed to this deal without me having to add any extra sweeteners.
In the end, I had to add extra pieces to this trade to get the Madden Algorithm to accept it, and I completed it by replacing Mazi Smith with Osa Odighizuwa and adding an extra fourth-round pick, which wasn’t much compared to other trades on this list.
Eagles Trade For Jaelen Phillips
- Eagles got: EDGE Jaelen Phillips
- Dolphins got: 2026 3rd round pick
- Trade bar: 40% full
I’ll take a duly earned victory lap on this one after correctly predicting this trade in my prediction article from a week ago, although I argued that the Eagles would only have to cough up a 5th round pick for the veteran pass rusher, it turns out that the Dolphins asking price was much higher than I expected, but not nearly as high as what Madden’s trade algorithm suggested.
In the end, I completed the trade by adding another 3rd-round pick, a 4th-round pick, and a 7th-round pick, marking a drastic upcharge in Madden from his real-life price of just a single 3rd-round pick.
Seahawks Trade For Rashid Shaheed
- Seahawks got: WR Rashid Shaheed
- Saints got: 2026 4th round and 2026 5th round pick
- Trade bar: 35% full
The deep-ball threat was sold by the lowly Saints instead of their much higher-profile receiver, Chris Olave, who would have commanded a much higher asking price. Instead, the Saints traded Shahid to the Seahawks, who are looking for a complement to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, for two mid-round picks. This value was enough to get the Madden trade bar roughly a third of the way there, but didn’t represent anywhere near enough value to satisfy Madden’s insatiable desire for draft picks in return for mid-level players with little track record of being anything more than a role player in an unproductive offense.
I completed the trade by adding a 2026 2nd round pick to the mix.
Jaguars Trade For Jakobi Meyers
- Jaguars got: WR Jakobi Meyers
- Raiders got: 2026 4th round and a 2026 6th round pick
- Trade bar: 20% full
Despite being three overall points better than Rashid Shaheed, Shaheed was valued higher than Meyers this week in the trade market, fetching a 4th and 5th rounder compared to Meyers’ 4th and 6th round value. Madden, however, stood true to its overall grades, giving this trade a worse grade than the Shaheed trade by roughly 15% as it demanded much more value added to the trade to complete the transaction.
I ended up adding a 2026 2nd round pick and a 2026 5th round pick to this trade in order to reach a final deal, giving Meyers a slightly higher overall value compared to Shaheed, gaining the equivalent of a 6th round pick in value above Shaheed in the final trade values.
Ravens Trade For Dre’Mont Jones
Ravens got: EDGE Dre’Mont Jones
Titans got: 2026 5th round pick
Trade bar 20% full
Dre’Mont Jones has had 4.5 sacks in the last four games, as he’s added to his trade value tremendously in the last month of the season. He was not someone I expected to be on the trade market, or really any market, just a few weeks ago, but he has proved himself recently and earned the right to be traded to a team with actual playoff aspirations (no offense to the Titans). He was bought by the Ravens for a 5th round pick, which I thought would be similar to his Madden value, given that he’s only a 76 overall rated player in the game, but he actually demanded much more assets than I expected.
I completed the trade by adding a 2026 3rd round pick and a 2026 4th round pick, which made his value much higher than I figured a 76 overall edge rusher would require, but then again, Madden’s trade algorithm has never made any sense to me anyway.
Eagles Trade For Jaire Alexander
- Eagles got: CB Jaire Alexander
- Ravens got: 2026 6th round pick
- Trade bar: 1% full
Jaire Alexander theoretically still has a ton of value, as the former two-time all-pro is just 28 and has had double-digit pass deflections in every season in which he’s played more than 10 games; however, he hasn’t done that since 2022, and hasn’t started a game at all this season. With that being said, Madden absolutely hates this trade, considering they still have him as one of the highest-rated corners in the game, which is an indictment of Madden’s player ratings team more than anything else.
At the end of the day, I had to add a huge haul, similar to what the Colts gave the Jets for Sauce Gardner, to complete this trade, including a 2026 1st-round pick, a 2027 1st-round pick, and a 2027 7th-round pick.
Cowboys Trade For Logan Wilson
- Cowboys got: LB Logan Wilson
- Bengals got: 2026 7th round pick
- Trade bar: 5% full
This trade was the least interesting trade of the day, and I considered not adding it (similarly to how I didn’t add the Michael Carter II or Joe Tryon-Shoyinka Trades), but considering I already made a Cowboys trade in this article and had the simulation already up and running I decided to give it a shot and I was surprised at just how valuable the game considered Logan Wilson.
I had to add a 2026 second-round pick to the trade to make it work, which was crazy considering Logan Wilson wasn’t even starting for the Bengals by the time he was traded.
