With the Super Bowl just one week away, free agency is fast approaching. It should be a busy March and in addition to the free agency frenzy, there could be an active trade market this Spring. A potential Antonio Brown trade has dominated headlines, but there a bunch of other high profile guys who could be moved. With that in mind, former NFL agent and current CBS Sports analyst Joel Corry recently took a look at the top ten trade candidates for this offseason.
The whole piece is worth a read, as it’s always great to get an agent’s perspective on these matters. Among the big names that Corry lists as trade possibilities are Joe Flacco, Brown, and Eli Manning. Blockbuster trades didn’t used to be too common in the NFL, but teams have slowly been coming around to making bigger deals the past few years. Odds are there will be at least a couple of splash trades before training camp rolls around.
Here’s more from around the league:
- The Jets desperately need pass-rush help, and they “almost certainly will be interested” in Rams defensive end Dante Fowler Jr. when free agency starts, according to Ralph Vacchiano of SNY. Vacchiano writes that the Jets “tried several times to trade for him” from the Jaguars before they ultimately dealt him to Los Angeles. Fowler, an impending free agent, wasn’t great in the regular season, but he’s come alive in the playoffs with 1.5 sacks and three quarterback hits through two playoff games. Vacchiano’s piece also highlights Patriots defensive end Trey Flowers as a potential target for the Jets, as he writes that New England isn’t “likely to pay him” this offseason.
- Speaking of teams looking for pass-rush help, the Raiders are in a similar boat. New Raiders GM Mike Mayock didn’t try to hide the fact that the team is looking for some help on the outside of their defensive line this week at the Senior Bowl, telling reporters “are we focused in on defensive ends at [the Senior Bowl]? Of course”, according to Scott Bair of NBC Sports, adding “we’d be dumb if we weren’t”. The Raiders had only 13 sacks as a team this past year, by far the fewest of any team in the league. In fact the second worse total was 30, more than twice as many as Oakland had, so it wouldn’t be at all surprising if they go with a pass-rusher at number four overall in this April’s draft.
- In case you missed it, Cowboys star pass-rusher Demarcus Lawrence is set to undergo shoulder surgery.
Chucky will no doubt show the rest of the league what a genius he is and solve the Raiders pass rush problems by signing Julius Peppers.
+1 for the joke
I understand that Mack was expensive but it feels pretty silly that the Raiders find themselves so hard up for pass rush after trading one of the premier pass rushers in the game.
I can potentially see either the transition or franchise tag on Flowers. 20M in cap space, can go up with Gronk retiring/cutting Dwayne Allen
You cut Allen you still carry some dead money. And if you tag flowers it’s going to be a hefty raise considering the top players salaries at his position. You’d be looking at 16mil for flowers based on average of top players at that position
According to Over the Cap cutting Allen would be $0 dead money and save $7.4M though I could be reading that wrong. They could tag and trade, or use the transition and be able to match. Too valuable to let go for nothing imo
Fowler, Flowers…Sounds like a decision in scrabble.