The news of trading for Ryan Switzer got me to thinking: is Kevin Colbert the most active GM in the league when it comes to preseason trades? It at least felt that way. This time of year is always busy in Pittsburgh and I wanted to put it in context.
Since 2015, Colbert and the Steelers have made ten total trades from the start of August leading up to the beginning of Week One.
Six of those have been acquiring a player for a pick: Switzer, Vance McDonald, J.J. Wilcox, Justin Gilbert, Josh Scobee, and Brandon Boykin.
Three have involved trading a Steeler for a pick: Ross Cockrell, Sammie Coates, and Brad Wing.
And one was a player for player deal: Lucas Crowley for Dashaun Phillips last summer.
But how does that stack up with the rest of the league? That’s what I wanted to find out. So since 2015, here’s the list of the number of trades each organization has made over the same timeframe, the beginning of August to the first weekend of the regular season. This includes everything that’s happened in 2018, last including the Ravens shipping Kamalei Correa to the Titans.
1. Seattle – 11
2. New England – 10
3. Pittsburgh – 10
4. Philadelphia – 9
5. San Francisco – 9
6. Kansas City – 8
7. Cleveland – 7
8. Detroit – 6
9. Indianapolis – 5
10. Tennessee – 5
11. Baltimore – 4
12. Buffalo – 4
13. Minnesota – 4
14. Carolina – 3
15. Dallas – 3
16. New Orleans – 3
17. New York Giants – 3
18. New York Jets – 3
19. Oakland – 3
20. Washington – 3
21. Atlanta – 2
22. Chicago – 2
23. Cincinnati – 2
24. Denver – 2
25. Green Bay – 2
26. Houston – 2
27. Jacksonville – 2
28. LA Rams – 2
29. Tampa Bay – 2
30. Arizona – 1
31. LA Chargers – 1
32. Miami – 1
So the Steelers are tied at the hip with the New England Patriots in another category, each making ten trades. But John Schneider and the Seahawks top everyone with 11. They made six of them in 2017, the most in any offseason by a single team over this span.
Obviously, there have been some regime changes, so it’s hard to say across the boards which organizations are the most active, though the top three all have the same people in charge: Carroll/Schneider in Seattle, Belichick in New England, and Tomlin/Colbert here in Pittsburgh.
There’s also some consistency at the bottom, at least in respect to the GM role. Miami’s Tom Telesco and Arizona’s Steve Keim have only pulled off one deal going on four years now.
