The NFL trade deadline is suddenly exciting. What changed?
Increased salary cap room across the NFL is making aggressive moves much more common.
The NFL trade deadline was Tuesday afternoon, and fans were imagining a deal that would make their team better. For years those were pipe dreams that never happened.
A year ago, Joe Thomas, Sheldon Richardson, Alshon Jeffery, Joe Haden and others were rumored to be possible pieces in trades before the 2016 deadline. But no blockbuster happened, and the biggest moves were the Browns acquiring Jamie Collins and the Patriots getting Kyle Van Noy.
The trade deadline is getting much more exciting, though.
We got a taste when the Jaguars traded for two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Marcell Dareus on Friday, and the Seahawks traded for three-time Pro Bowl offensive tackle Duane Brown on Monday.
But the bombshell came Monday night when the Patriots sent Jimmy Garoppolo to become the new franchise quarterback of the 49ers.
Seeing those dominoes fall gave hope to fans wishing their teams would go after Martavis Bryant, T.Y. Hilton or one of the other big names that has been tossed into the rumor mill. Dream big, NFL fans.
And while Bryant and Hilton stayed put, the deadline still brought more drama than usual. On Tuesday, the Dolphins traded No. 1 running back Jay Ajayi to the Eagles, and the Panthers sent leading receiver Kelvin Benjamin to the Bills.
For years, the NFL trade deadline paled in comparison to the excitement that comes when the trade deadline approaches for the NBA in February or the MLB deadline in the summer.
Hell, two of the starting pitchers in the World Series right now are Yu Darvish of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Justin Verlander of the Houston Astros, who were with the Texas Rangers and Detroit Tigers, respectively, just a few months ago.
The NFL equivalent of that has never really happened, but that day may actually be here now. Here are three reasons why the trade deadline is suddenly more exciting than it’s ever been:
1. The tight salary cap is loosening
Adding an important player from another team who can actually contribute typically raises the question ‘Why didn’t the other team just keep him?’ There’s usually a long answer for that, but a huge salary is typically the crux of the situation.
The gigantic contract Dareus has is the biggest reason why the Bills sent him to Jacksonville. Brown’s discontent with his contract with the Texans is a huge part of what sent him to Seattle.
Garoppolo is cheap but due to become a free agent, and that was about to become a giant pain in the Patriots’ ass.
But unlike baseball, which doesn’t limit spending outside of a luxury tax, not every NFL team has enough room under the salary cap to acquire a player who recently received, or is on the hunt for, a gigantic contract.
That tide has shifted a bit.
The salary cap is rising faster than franchises are spending, and that means more room than ever for moves. Fifteen teams currently have at least $10 million in space and only two have less than $1 million.
According to The Ringer, just 13 teams had at least $5 million in space during the 2014 season.
There’s much more room to work with now and a handful of teams with gobs of money to throw at players like Dareus and Garoppolo.
2. Coaches are being more flexible with game plans
There are a lot of moving parts in football, making it difficult to incorporate a new face into the mix.
Adjustments have to be made after trades in other sports too, but ultimately Verlander and Darvish were pitchers for the Tigers and Rangers, and are still pitchers with new teams tasked with doing the same exact thing: get batters out.
But communication is crucial on every single play in the NFL, and it’s a liability to have a player on the field who isn’t exactly aware of where he should be, or what he should be doing.
That level of sophistication may even be exaggerated a bit in the minds of NFL coaches who aren’t so sure if someone new will be able to soak in their genius designs.
Thankfully, that rigidity seems to be waning a bit. There’s a rise in “positionless football,” with teams more willing to tailor schemes to the talent on the roster.
There’s a renaissance happening of college offenses leaking into the NFL that rely on simple schemes and speed mismatches.
The increased flexibility is making it easier to slot players in right away as they’re still learning.
3. The NFL’s decision in 2012 to move the deadline is paying off
The best blockbuster deals typically happen because one team wants to acquire a piece that pushes it over the top, and another wants to dump a contract and get a shiny new draft pick in return.
But why send away a contributor to get a pick for next year when there’s still a chance that player can help you get to the playoffs?
By the time February rolls around in the NBA or July and August come in the MLB, it’s already apparent for many teams whether they still have championship hopes or if their year is sunk.
For years, the trade deadline was after Week 6 of the NFL season. That’s way too early for teams to be giving up on their chances, with the exception of the few teams that really stink it up in September.
But in 2012, the NFL pushed the deadline back to the Tuesday after Week 8. Those two extra weeks do a little bit more to sort out the contenders from the pretenders and give teams a better idea of what kind of postseason chances they have.
Pro Football Talk has suggested doing away with the deadline altogether, although that runs the risk of a team ditching an impending free agent in Week 17 and sending him to a Super Bowl contender. The reward of a compensatory draft pick nullifies that risk some, but the value of a trade deadline in the interest of fairness is understandable.
But how about pushing it back to Week 10 or so? Week 12 even? Because this week has been a lot of fun.