This was the first year with the NFL's trade deadline set for after Week 9, an adjustment prompted by the move to a 17-game schedule and a desire by the league to keep the deadline in a central spot of the season.
The goal: balancing team improvement and the flurry of interest generated by deals with the desire to prevent tanking and the late-season competitive imbalance that would follow. Some teams wanted the deadline to be pushed even later to give them even more time to assess their fortunes. The thinking in keeping the deadline at just after the midpoint of the season is that the maximum number of teams are still, at least hypothetically, in the playoff mix, while also having time to evaluate their needs and whether they should be buyers or sellers. And because few teams believe they are entirely out of it with a little less than half of the season still to play, the NFL avoids the awkwardness of wholesale selloffs that signal a waving of the white flag.
The action was spread out this season. Davante Adams and Amari Cooper were traded on Oct. 15, three full weeks before the deadline. A steady trickle kept things interesting until Tuesday, when a whopping eight trades were made.
The true results of these decisions won't be known until we see how the season shakes out, but here is a look at the winners and losers -- teams that addressed needs, players that escaped bad situations, and those that stood on the sidelines.
WINNERS
Kansas City Chiefs: In the 2024 installment of the rich getting richer, the Chiefs might have made the single most consequential acquisition when they traded for receiver DeAndre Hopkins. His two-touchdown Monday night in the overtime victory over the Bucs tells you everything about his impact on the receiver-ravaged Chiefs. And Hopkins is presumably still not entirely up to speed with the offense. The Chiefs are in dynasty-building mode, and what they're doing bears a striking resemblance to how the New England Patriots operated for years, adding low-risk, high-reward players to fill holes. Following a season-ending injury to cornerback Jaylen Watson, the Chiefs reinforced their pass rush with a deal for Josh Uche, who no longer fit in New England. Both Hopkins and Uche were acquired for low-round draft picks. The Chiefs are undefeated on the field and on a winning streak off of it, too.
Wide receivers: Imagine being Hopkins, who went from playing with Will Levis and Mason Rudolph in Tennessee to being Patrick Mahomes' teammate. Or Diontae Johnson, who went from one of the worst teams in the NFL (Carolina) to one of the best (Baltimore). It was good to be a veteran receiver this year, because they were the biggest prizes of the trade deadline, with six switching teams, starting with Davante Adams finally joining old friend Aaron Rodgers in New York, a trade that was speculated about for months. The full tally: Adams, Hopkins, Johnson, Jonathan Mingo, Cooper and Mike Williams. Ironically, Adams might be one of two traded receivers who don't end up in the postseason.
Minnesota Vikings: Going from the 2-7 Jaguars to the 6-2 Vikings -- a team that looks like it could compete for a Super Bowl -- is an obvious win for left tackle Cam Robinson, who can bolster his 2025 free agency market playing for a playoff contender. But the Vikings are the real victors here. Losing Christian Darrisaw, one of the NFL's best left tackles, to a season-ending knee injury is a potentially devastating blow. But the Vikings moved aggressively to get Robinson, who was solid in his Minnesota debut against the Colts last Sunday, not only shoring up Sam Darnold's protection but also sending a very strong message -- to the locker room and the rest of the league -- that they are not ceding what has already been a surprising season.
Fans of the trade deadline: The NFL trade deadline used to be a bore -- in 2015, just one player was moved within a week of the deadline -- in part because the perception was that a trade was too difficult because of the salary cap. But business has picked up in recent years, thanks in part to a wave of young general managers with a fierce aggressiveness streak -- looking at you, Adam Peters -- and a realization that nobody gets very much time to make an impact and save their jobs. Last season, eight players were traded within 24 hours of the deadline. This season, the action came early and often. In all, there were 18 trades involving 19 players since Week 1 of the 2024 season.
Detroit Lions: The most complete and dominant team in the NFL filled its most noteworthy -- and maybe only -- void Tuesday, finally acquiring edge rusher Za’Darius Smith from the Browns. The Lions are firmly in the Super Bowl mix, and the loss of Aidan Hutchinson had the potential to be a game-changer once they get deep in the playoffs, which is where they appear to be headed. The Lions had won in the last few weeks without Hutchinson, but they didn't sack the Packers' Jordan Love last week and had just five sacks total in the last three games, compared to eight in their first three games of the season -- a worrisome trend. Smith had five sacks in nine games for the Browns. The Lions didn't make this move for the regular season. The Lions made this move with the playoffs and Super Bowl -- and the top-tier quarterbacks they will face there -- in mind.
Cincinnati Bengals: Snagging running back Khalil Herbert won't garner all that many headlines, despite giving the Bengals running back reinforcement while Zack Moss is out indefinitely with a neck injury. But this is a rare Bengals deadline trade -- only their fourth in-season trade to involve a player in franchise history -- and the signal it sends is nearly as important as Herbert's production: The Bengals believe they can still make a playoff push despite their slow start, and their stand-pat days might be over.
Washington Commanders: Their window opened earlier than expected, and the Commanders jumped through it, acquiring Pro Bowl cornerback Marshon Lattimore, who drew plenty of interest from other teams. The rapid makeover of the Commanders in a little more than a year has been stunning, turbocharged this fall by rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels. They lead the NFC East, and the addition of Lattimore shores up the weakness of a team that still has to contend, twice, with the Eagles' A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith and, twice, with the Cowboys' CeeDee Lamb. In giving up third-, fourth- and sixth-round picks, and getting Lattimore and a fifth in return, the Commanders sent a strong message that they are going for it right now. The only concern is Lattimore's health. He hasn't played a full season since 2021.
Pittsburgh Steelers: They'd been looking for a wide receiver all season -- remember Brandon Aiyuk watch? -- and finally got Mike Williams to team with George Pickens. It was clear the Steelers think they have a shot this season as soon as Mike Tomlin replaced Justin Fields with Russell Wilson to get more of a downfield passing attack going. Wilson has delivered, but if the Steelers are going to topple the league's elite teams, they'll have to be able to score more than 30 points, a number they have topped just twice this season, against the Jets and Raiders. With games ahead against the Commanders, Ravens (twice), Bengals (twice), Eagles and Chiefs, they need all the firepower they can get. Their trade for pass rusher Preston Smith reinforces one of the league's best defenses, adds depth to T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith and, again, will help the Steelers when they face the barrage of elite quarterbacks coming up.
LOSERS
Dallas Cowboys: They have one of the league's worst running attacks, just put quarterback Dak Prescott on injured reserve, and have lost three in a row, but Jerry Jones is not giving up. The Cowboys needed a receiver, no doubt, and their trade for Jonathan Mingo might help, especially in the future, because Mingo is only in the second year of his rookie contract. He had 43 receptions as a rookie for the Carolina Panthers last year but has only been targeted 26 times this season, despite a dearth of healthy receiving options in Carolina (his last reception came on Oct. 13, for 1 yard). So there are legitimate questions about whether Mingo can still develop. Compounding those questions is the compensation in the trade, which is relatively rich. The Cowboys gave up a fourth-rounder, more than they received when they traded away a then-27-year-old Amari Cooper and perhaps more than the Chiefs paid for Hopkins last month. (That compensation depends on if the Chiefs make the Super Bowl and Hopkins plays 60 percent of the Chiefs' snaps. The Cowboys are also getting a seventh-rounder in return.) It's fair to question the wisdom of giving up draft picks for a player unlikely to make an immediate impact during a season that appears likely to end without a playoff appearance, and which has revealed significant roster holes that seem more pressing than wide receiver. For a team that was supposed to be all in, this was a curious move. As always with the Cowboys, it's complicated.
Long-suffering Cleveland Browns fans: The Browns are doing the smart thing by getting draft picks for players like Amari Cooper and Za'Darius Smith in a lost season. The Browns will finally have a normal complement of selections when the 2025 NFL Draft rolls around, the first time since the 2022 Deshaun Watson trade that they will have a first-round pick. So, general manager Andrew Berry will have plenty of ammunition to rebuild the Browns, and fans can look forward to late April. But these trades officially signal the white flag being waved on 2024. For the rest of the year, fans will stew over how the team's hands were tied by Watson's guaranteed contract, how it refused to bench him when the season might have still been salvageable, and how the team still has to figure out what to do with Watson after this season.
New Orleans Saints: They just lost to the worst team in the league, they have already fired Dennis Allen and they are in dire salary-cap shape for next season after kicking that particular can down the road for years. The Saints did not go all in on a fire sale, but trading Lattimore was the right move to start the rebuild. That, though, is exactly where the Saints are headed after those two hopeful wins to open the season.
WITHHOLDING JUDGMENT
New York Jets: They acquired Davante Adams, traded Mike Williams and have Allen Lazard on IR. The Adams trade looked like a waste for two weeks, when the Jets lost a pair of games, but the veteran has drawn defensive attention away from Garrett Wilson, allowing him to flourish. And in last Thursday's victory against the Texans, Adams and Aaron Rodgers finally clicked. Williams never caught up after missing camp while recovering from a torn ACL, was called out by Rodgers and became the odd man out when the Jets landed Adams. He has been targeted just 21 times this season and seemed to clearly be upset by the Adams deal. Trading him at a time when Lazard has to be out at least another three games is still a risk, though. It means more chances for Xavier Gipson and Malachi Corley, and we'll soon find out how much confidence Rodgers has in them. A run to the playoffs remains a longshot -- the Jets have to go 7-1 just to get to 10 wins -- but if the second half against the Texans turns out to be the new norm, that's not impossible. Given that, it's too early to tell if all this mid-season wide receiver rearranging will have been for naught.
