The NFL trade deadline is usually all talk and little action. Will the 2025 story be any different by Tuesday’s deadline?
As much as the media knows how badly fans want there to be real news at the trade deadline, many of them can’t really help themselves but to make things up and stretch baseless speculation into something that will be clicked. If you can’t tell the difference between Ian Rapoport or Adam Schefter and one of these wannabes who has yet to actually get anything right before, do you actually even want the truth? Is it easier to just believe that a timeline where all these trades happen is just as good as the world dimension we actually live in?
The NFL trade deadline is boring. At best, the big names you’ll hear thrown around at the deadline are on their way to being moved but there are too many complicating factors that make a trade impossible at midseason:
A couple of years ago the Titans and Giants were reportedly open to shopping Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley. Those running backs stayed pat at the deadline but left in 2024 free agency, which ultimately became two of the biggest player movements of last year. But they weren’t traded at the deadline despite being good players on bad teams.
Brian Burns was one of the biggest rumored names at the deadline in both 2022 and 2023 — the Rams allegedly offered two first round picks for him — but he didn’t get dealt until the Giants stepped up during the 2024 offseason.
This year, it’s Trey Hendrickson, Maxx Crosby, and Chris Olave generally leading the discussions on the biggest names rumored to be moved at the deadline. But just because these players could be on the way out, it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen tomorrow.
Hendrickson is more likely to leave the Bengals as a 2025 free agent, not as a deadline move. If the Bengals want a first round pick for Hendrickson — no team is going to pay that — they’d stand a better chance by waiting until they can franchise tag him in February.
Crosby is more likely to be traded by the Raiders in 2026. Olave too, although I would bet that the Saints end up extending him instead.
It will be far less surprising if the best receiver traded on Tuesday is Jakobi Meyers, a 29-year-old stuck on the Raiders with zero touchdowns who is openly dying to get out of Las Vegas.
The best pass rusher traded might not be Crosby or Hendrickson, but Jaelan Phillips. A perfectly okay player who has 10.5 sacks since the start of the 2023 season. It’s possible, if not likely, that the best pass rusher at the deadline was already traded: The relatively unknown Keion White.
Update: Phillips has been traded to the Eagles
The Jets are also not incentivized to trade Breece Hall for anything less than a second round pick, which is too high of a price for any team to pay. Hall just had 133 yards and two touchdowns last week. What rush is New York in to move their best offensive weapon for a day three pick?
Plenty could happen in the next 24 hours, but it probably won’t. Some players will be traded, but given the extremely bad values we’ve seen moved for players (every single trade since Micah Parsons is a day three pick swap for a player), we may have already seen most of the deals we’ll see, and the best deals so far.
Hendrickson? Anything is possible.
The Rams, or any other NFC West team moving a mountain for an edge at the trade deadline? Not that probable.
See More:
