With the entire NFL world descending on Indianapolis for the NFL Scouting Combine, there are always interesting bits of news that come up. You rarely have the decision-makers for all 32 NFL teams in one spot and available to the media. One very interesting nugget Tuesday came from Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry. He discussed a proposed rule change regarding the NFL trade deadline, and Jared Mueller of SBNation’s Dawgs By Nature had video.
“We think, as a league, it makes most sense to give teams the most flexibility as long as possible to have the best product for the stretch run to the playoffs,” Berry said. “If you look at us compared to the other major sports leagues, if you look at their seasons by calendar days or games played, baseball and basketball, they have the trade deadline at 65 percent of the games have been played. Hockey is at 78 percent. Currently, we are at 45 percent. Our proposal would move it to about 55 percent of the games played.”
To be honest, the NFL trade deadline is rarely as enjoyable as the other major sports leagues in the United States. Part of that can be attributed to the shorter season for football. Even with the expansion to 17 games, the other three major sports play a much longer schedule. The NBA and NHL each play 82 games in their regular seasons while MLB plays a whopping 162 games. Due to parity and short seasons, it takes a while for NFL teams to be out of the playoff race.
Berry also mentions the 17-game season as another reason for pushing the trade deadline back two weeks because “the trade deadline never moved when the season expanded to 17 games.”
Will moving the trade deadline back two weeks really make a big difference? Well, we have seen an increase in trade deadline activity in recent seasons. In 2023, the trade deadline was Oct. 31. That date was in the week leading up to Week 9 of the season. There were six moves alone on the 31st, including the eventual NFC champion San Francisco 49ers trading for DE Chase Young from the Washington Commanders. In all, 15 in-season trades were made in 2023.
At the time of the 2023 trade deadline, there were only five teams that had won two or fewer games. Every other team was within two games of .500 or better. Perhaps with two extra weeks, there would be more teams looking to offload players because they are out of the playoff picture. Perhaps there would be more teams looking to add players to either push for a playoff spot or contend for a division title.
Pushing the trade deadline back would only be a good thing for the league. The playoff picture would be a little bit clearer, which helps delineate between buyers and sellers. When the deadline is less than halfway through the season, teams rarely know which they should be. Our own Matthew Marczi pondered this question of buying versus selling ahead of the 2023 trade deadline. He felt like the Steelers weren’t really buyers or sellers at that point. Maybe the Steelers would have wanted to make some moves with a couple of weeks more to do so.
