We’re three weeks away from the trade deadline, so it’s time to start speculating about the potential trades we might see this year!
…Wait, what’s that? Davante Adams to where? Amari Cooper to who? Roy Robertson-Harris what?
OK, we’re apparently a good week late in starting to speculate about the trading deadline, as teams that have found themselves outside the playoff picture have already begun to shed their tradeable assets to teams that still have hopes and dreams. The Jaguars cracked the door open on Monday by sending reliable defensive lineman Robertson-Harris to the wildly injured Seahawks. Said door was then promptly kicked wide open by the AFC East on Tuesday, as the Jets and Bills saw their performances on Monday night and immediately went out and grabbed Adams and Cooper, respectively.
The NFL pushed the trade deadline back a week this offseason to help increase player movement, but this is continuing a trend we’ve seen for two or three years now. Blockbuster trades used to be few and far between; now, we get one or two every year. This is good! This is exciting! The more chances for teams to make moves – and mistakes! – the better. It also emphasizes that the first third of the season, more than ever, is just an opening act. We already sometimes think of the first two weeks of the season as a warmup, as teams play their starters less and less in the preseason. Add in significant players moving in October, or now even November, and teams can go from borderline playoff teams to Super Bowl contenders very quickly. It’s all a matter of identifying sellers and prying their stars and key role players from them.
At the moment, there are seven teams with a less than 10% chance of making the playoffs, per our playoff odds. The Jaguars, Raiders and Browns have already made their first moves, while the Panthers, Patriots, Giants and Titans are lagging behind. Let’s take a look at all seven and try to find the intersection between players not in their long-term plans and players other teams would actually want.
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