The trade deadline brought real movement across the NFL, but it still left a few obvious fits sitting on the table. Some teams got aggressive.
Others made the kind of calls that told you exactly how they view the rest of this season. And then there were the deals that never happened - the ones that could have changed the shape of the stretch run.
Minnesota’s quarterback situation was one of the clearest missed opportunities. The Vikings did land Kirk Cousins, a 38-year-old veteran who knows the system and should give them a shot at a Super Bowl, but that still leaves the long-term picture unsettled.
Justin Herbert would have changed that conversation in a hurry. He’s in the middle of the worst season of his career, tied for the league lead with 11 interceptions, and his Chargers are sitting at 0-8.
Even so, Herbert is only 28, already a two-time Pro Bowler, and has piled up more than 25,000 passing yards and 183 total touchdowns in six-plus NFL seasons. He also brings the kind of arm strength and mobility that forces defenses to stay honest.
With a five-year, $262.5 million extension signed in 2023, he’s under team control through the ’29 season. For Minnesota, that would have meant a solution now and later.
The Chargers, meanwhile, had their own obvious trade piece in Khalil Mack. Los Angeles did move linebacker Daiyan Henley to the Broncos for fourth- and fifth-round picks, but otherwise stayed quiet despite having multiple players on expiring deals.
Mack was the most attractive chip, and he’s still producing at a high level in his age-35 season with 22 tackles, five tackles for loss and three sacks to start the year. Buffalo would have made sense as a destination.
The Bills entered Week 9 with the 11th-lowest pressure rate at 34.1% and the 11th-fewest sacks with 17. Mack would have fit alongside Greg Rousseau and Bradley Chubb, and there’s another layer too: he played at the University of Buffalo from 2009 to ’13.
That would have been a homecoming with some real juice.
New England’s backfield situation also begged for help. The Patriots were already without TreVeyon Henderson because of “unexplained neurological symptoms” that sent him to the hospital for a period of time, and then Rhamondre Stevenson left the loss to the Packers late in the third quarter with a knee injury.
Stevenson is dealing with a knee tendon issue that, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, won’t require surgery but will keep him out for a while. That leaves the Patriots thin at the position, with Corey Kiner and Lan Larison on the active roster and Terrell Jennings on the practice squad.
Tony Pollard would have been a logical answer. The Titans running back has 246 rushing yards on 46 carries, is averaging 5.3 yards per attempt, and has scored five touchdowns in his past two games.
He’s also in the final year of his deal, and Tennessee at 1-7 could have cashed in on an expiring contract. For New England, the price likely would have been far lower than what teams were asking for Jonathan Taylor or Saquon Barkley.
Taylor himself was another name that should have moved. The Colts reportedly got offers from multiple teams that included a second-round pick plus more, but Indianapolis wanted a blockbuster offer before even thinking about it.
That never arrived, and Taylor stayed put. One team that should have pushed harder was Cincinnati.
The Bengals’ offense is humming - second in the league in points per game at 30.0, powered by Joe Burrow’s league-leading 23 touchdown passes and 114.8 passer rating - but the ground game has lagged badly. Through nine weeks, Cincinnati is averaging just 85.6 rushing yards per game, third-fewest in the NFL, and has only five rushing touchdowns, tied for fifth-fewest.
Taylor, who ranks eighth in rushing yards and has eight rushing touchdowns, would have given the Bengals another major weapon alongside Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.
The Jaguars were active all week, and they still left one intriguing possibility untouched. After trading for three players on Monday to strengthen the defense, Jacksonville told teams early Tuesday that Brian Thomas Jr. was staying.
They followed through, keeping the 2024 first-round pick in place despite a slower-than-expected start to his career. If they had been willing to listen, the Rams would have been a natural match.
Los Angeles is without Davante Adams because of a hamstring injury, and the team is “likely” to place Puka Nacua on injured reserve because of MCL and PCL sprains. The Rams have won three straight to climb back to 5-4 after a 2-4 start, and they’re just outside the NFC playoff picture.
They needed offense, and Thomas Jr. would have fit the bill as they tried to push into the postseason.
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Robert Saleh now finds himself tied to a rebuilding process that is moving faster than most coaching timelines allow. When a team starts moving established defenders for draft capital, it changes both the short-term outlook and the pressure on the staff, and the latest deal only makes the questions around Salehs future harder to ignore. [Read more 🡒]
Bills Just Made A Secondary Move Fans Have Been Waiting For
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Titans Suddenly Have A Linebacker Decision That Could Change Everything
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Cedric Gray and Anthony Hill Jr. are part of that calculation, and the possibility of leaning into the younger pair gives this decision real consequence. Tennessee still has time before the deadline to sort through its roster choices, but what it decides with Barton could say plenty about how aggressively the Titans want to reset around their younger defenders. [Read more 🡒]