The NFL trade deadline has come and gone. For those of us who have been pounding the table for weeks for the Vikings to trade for Kirk Cousins, it feels like a well-earned victory. Now it’s just up to a slightly immobile 38-year-old man to legitimize the outsized hopes and dreams that I’ve placed on this particular transaction (see you at SoFi in February, right guys?). For me, it’s no secret that this deadline has been about seizing the moment. Jacksonville, Minnesota, Chicago and Buffalo have most certainly heeded the call, while the coaches and general managers who didn’t feel the need to bring someone else in will have to answer for their own inactivity in time.
As we always do, let’s try and parse the winners from the losers, starting with Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell, general manager Nolan Teasley and a team that rejected the horrendous tradition of doubling down on ineffective quarterback play.
WINNERS
Forgiveness
It’s interesting how the Kirk Cousins trade has become an all-of-a-sudden referendum on O’Connell. And while it’s true that O’Connell let Cousins, Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones out of the building, I think there are two components at play.
One, the quarterback landscape was different back then. Darnold, Baker Mayfied, Jones, Geno Smith … These quarterbacks were less of a market scarcity than they are now. They were just seemingly always available. The landscape has shifted drastically, and formerly discarded journeymen are now anchors in a storm of uncertainty. O’Connell didn’t see that coming like plenty of other coaches and general managers around the same time.
Two, I would bet that there was some degree of hubris involved. O’Connell put together excellent seasons with experienced quarterbacks, which probably led him to be a bit overconfident when it came to developing a rookie quarterback or making it work with a second-chance veteran such as Kyler Murray.
But out of all of this comes what I think is most important for any coach in his position: an admission that there were some missteps in the past and a corrective action before it’s too late. If O’Connell was lunkheaded enough to continue dragging the team down with J.J. McCarthy or continuing to force Carson Wentz down our throat based on some hunch, or insisting we wait on Murray for another few weeks while 2025 undrafted backup Max Brosmer takes snaps, that would prove he learned nothing.
Instead, we got the most sensible and impactful trade of the deadline and, with it, an admission from O’Connell: I’m smart enough to know when I need to pull the ripcord and ask for help.
Bills DC Jim Leonhard
I’ll admit that I can become overly excited about a new position coach turned coordinator and develop a massive blind spot. But I think there is so much more ahead for Leonhard and the Bills defense—a process that has been accelerated with the acquisition of safety Amani Hooker.
Hooker is a pure ball hawk who can take advantage of one of the league’s highest pressure rates and turn bad throws into costly turnovers. The Bills generate quarterback pressure on slightly more than 40% of opposing quarterback dropbacks, which is significant especially when you consider the Vikings’ pressure rate currently sits at 48.2. It’s not that big of a difference—the next-highest team, the Jaguars, is at 44%—and shows Buffalo has the horses. There is now top-tier talent at every level of this defense, and Leonhard won’t have to do as much piecing together in the post-C.J. Gardner-Johnson/get-the-most-out-of-Damar-Hamlin era.
Ryan Poles
Poles, the general manager of the Chicago Bears, made the most seismic acquisition of the trade deadline and appears to have read both the division and the NFL at large incredibly well. There was no singular player as impactful as Jeffery Simmons to be had during this time period. Multiple teams were searching for difference-making defensive tackles, and whether Poles had the relationship advantage to forge a deal for Simmons or simply the feel to pull the trigger at the right time ahead of the hustle and bustle, it put the rest of the NFC North and prospective contenders on the defensive.
As we’ll detail below, I don’t think we can compare the Simmons trade and the Jordan Davis trade because they’re completely different players. That said, from a broad perspective, they play the same position and, compared to what Jacksonville had to pay for Davis, the Bears likely will get more of a total impact out of Simmons on a cost-benefit scale. Having two more games with your new best player is critical as well, given that the NFC North and potentially home field advantage are going to come down to a handful of games. Poles felt an urgency to get the team a leg up on Minnesota and, like many of us, probably foresaw the obvious quarterback upgrade for the division rivals to come.
General managers of the AFC North
It’s always great when you don’t complete the extra credit assignment, then look around and discover that no one else has either. The Steelers at the deadline? Crickets. The Browns at the deadline? Nothing. The Ravens made a move for Cam Jurgens weeks ago, dealt for offensive line depth on Tuesday and brought in Jacoby Brissett less as a true deadline move and more as a protective measure for third-stringer Joe Fagnano. The Bengals found out on Twitter that they shouldn’t have traded for Arnold Ebiketie and backed out of the deal. And while that can be classified as a major missed opportunity, there’s probably a sense of relief that no one felt the need to shove a bunch of chips to the center of the table and make this poker table feel much more uncomfortable.
Meanwhile, Cleveland is showing no true aspiration to win the division and abandon their sacred timeline. Joe Burrow did not get another piece to diversify the offense. And Aaron Rodgers has to roll with the diminished receiver room for the remainder of the season (unless, of course, Brandon Aiyuk is somehow involved).
LOSERS
The Indianapolis Colts
The Colts traded one of the best interior offensive linemen of the last 25 years (Quenton Nelson) for a (2027) third- and a (‘28) fifth-round pick … but kept running back Jonathan Taylor (despite a premium offer from the Giants), who now has little to run behind. Then the Colts traded wide receiver Josh Downs … but kept quarterback Daniel Jones, who now has no one to throw to.
I’ve never seen a team Gift Of The Magi itself quite like the GM-less Colts, who wanted to avoid catastrophe at the deadline by firing Chris Ballard but only seemed to invite more. Indianapolis came out of the gate far too hot and missed the chance to get top value for both Nelson and DeForrest Buckner, then dangled Taylor before ultimately deciding to make him a building-block piece for the next regime. Throughout the process, the communication with the players seemed sparse, with Taylor saying a de facto goodbye to the fans before finding out he wasn’t dealt.
NFL BS
Raiders general manager John Spytek said he didn’t need to have any trade conversations regarding quarterback Kirk Cousins because he didn’t field any serious calls on the matter before Tuesday morning. Even the Vikings were telling anyone who would listen how content they were with the room assembled the way it was before Carson Wentz’s meltdown on Monday Night Football. So either we’re supposed to believe both of these supposed truths or we’re supposed to believe these coaches and general managers when they espouse all of their platitudes about overpreparedness.
The Vikings’ quarterback situation had been circling the drain for a month while the defense inched toward generational greatness. Meanwhile, the Raiders had lost three straight games after starting the season undefeated. Do you mean to tell me that no one in either of these buildings imagined a scenario in which the Vikings would want Cousins back and gamed it out before—checks watch—about four hours before the close of the trade deadline?
The Value Crowd
I think we’re missing a larger conversation piece about the perceived value of draft picks right about now. Jaguars general manager James Gladstone was getting demolished for giving up the Quinnen Williams-like haul for Jordan Davis, which is understandable to some degree. Davis didn’t really play a full-time role in the Eagles’ defense, with his highest snap share being 61.1% of the total team snaps in 2025. Davis’s usage decreased during the Eagles’ 2024 Super Bowl run to the point where he was on the field on only 20% of the team’s snaps. So it’s fair to say that a team shouldn’t have paid a full-time player price (Williams was closer to a 70% snap share throughout the latter years of his Jets contract).
But Davis has by far the highest ceiling in Jacksonville’s defense, where he can be used more as a strategic space-filler and profile similarly to DaVon Hamilton. Especially for big young defensive tackles, the NFL market doesn’t always differentiate well between a pass rushing defensive tackle and a super athletic run defender who can fill multiple gaps on one play.
Anyway, back to my point: We now have had three straight NFL draft classes that profiled completely differently in March and April than we initially thought the previous October and November. NIL and player movement is complicating the pipeline and also sending more experienced but less doctorate-level players to the league who have not been fully immersed in one replicable scheme. Quarterback movement, too, creates uncertainty as to who will actually be available. To me, that has to affect the value of picks globally because so much of the value of a pick in and of itself is tied to its proximity to a quarterback in a given draft. And if you cannot forecast that, wouldn’t you rather have the security of a proven veteran player?
The ‘What Could Have Beens’ In Detroit
The Lions began and ended their trade deadline movement with the acquisition of Andre Cisco from the Jets. While safety depth and secondary depth overall is critical for this franchise, I’m surprised Lions general manager Brad Holmes was not in the same mode as fellow Snead disciple James Gladstone in Jacksonville. How does an interest in cornerback Joey Porter Jr. vanish into nothing weeks later?
While I respect every general manager’s individual evaluation, We Like Our Guys is a tough message to send when you’ve had one of the worst defenses in the NFL, just lost a key defensive stalwart (Jack Campbell) to a terrible injury and have watched the rest of the division go all-in to chase the prize. The Bears made the most aggressive move of the deadline in acquiring DT Jeffery Simmons, while you could argue the Packers are getting the best player in the division back from injury (Micah Parsons) and the Vikings are seriously upgrading at quarterback with Kirk Cousins.
The Lions have one of the best offenses in the NFL, if not the best offense, coming off a signature victory over the Vikings and a gut-check win over the Dolphins post-Jack Campbell injury. It’s hard to downplay the emotional shift that a big deal can have on a locker room.
Jerry Jones
The Cowboys have the best quarterback in the NFC East and the division’s second-best playoff odds at 43%. Jones made one of the most stunning coaching hires of the last 10 years by selecting career assistant Brian Schottenheimer to run his team a year ago and, after one season of heavy investment and a pre-deadline move this year to acquire Joey Porter Jr., the boisterous owner chose to stand pat at the deadline.
There seems to be no more help on the way and Jones is prepared to allow this version of the team to sink or swim on its own. That’s all well and good except for the fact that we’re entering the latter years of Dak Prescott’s prime as well as the convoy of (cheaper) players Jones brought in to try and replace Micah Parsons. Of course, we’re all winners in the sense that we can discontinue our need to take this team seriously in the long term.
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