FEBRUARY 28: A half-measure move to Week 9 has generated some traction, according to CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones. The 49ers, Commanders, Eagles, Jets and Lions are joining the Browns’ push to propose moving the trade endpoint back. That said, disagreement exists among GMs and owners if the deadline needs to be moved at all.
Competitive balance reasons emerged when we last heard this matter brought up, and Jones adds the league wants to protect against potential tanking, something that could conceivably arise by giving sellers two extra weeks to determine their paths. The next round of league meetings are set for March 24-27.
FEBRUARY 27: While we heard a few months ago that the NFL is unlikely to delay their current trade-deadline setup, that won’t stop some teams from pushing for a change. During an appearance on PFT Live, Browns general manager Andrew Berry said the Browns and several other teams have proposed pushing the trade deadline from the end of Week 8 to the end of Week 10 (via PFT on X).
[RELATED: NFL Unlikely To Move Trade Deadline]
While teams have a handful of reasons for pushing for a change to the deadline date, Berry noted that the most obvious logic is because the NFL never adapted the date when switching to an 18-week schedule. The NFL moved the deadline to Week 8 back in 2012, but they kept their deadline the same when they added a week to their schedule in 2021.
“We want to retroactively correct the fact that the trade deadline never moved when the season expanded to 17 games,” Berry told reporters (via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com). “If, at some point in the future, the regular season expands to 18 games, we wanted to be proactive in terms of the positioning for the trade deadline.”
Further, Berry and rival teams believe that pushing the trade deadline back would only benefit the NFL as a whole. The expanded opportunity to improve a team via trade would assist with the “competitive integrity” of the league, according to the executive.
“We think as a league it makes sense to give teams the most flexibility as long as possible to have the best product down the stretch run of the playoffs,” Berry stated (h/t Spencer German of Browns Digest). “We wanted to make sure we maintained the competitive integrity of the season so you don’t get into player dumping late in the year.”
Berry also simply pointed to rival sports leagues as a reason for pushing back the NFL trade deadline. MLB’s trade deadline checks in around two thirds of the way through the season, while the NBA and NHL come after the half-way point of the campaign. The NFL deadline comes in at about 45% of the way through the season, and Berry noted to reporters that the proposed change would push that mark to about 55% of the way through the season. The GM also noted that a Week 10 deadline is notable because it’s been more than a decade since a team has been eliminated from postseason contention earlier than Week 11.
The NFL’s deadline change in 2012 led to an increase in in-season trading, and another change would only help to further increase the number of deals. After the 2022 deadline featured a record 10 trades on deadline day, multiple teams reached out to the league office about the prospect of moving the deadline back. Nothing came of it in time for the 2023 campaign, and while the NFL doesn’t sound overly receptive to making a change in 2024, Berry and his counterparts appear to have a strong argument when the owners meet next month.
Seems like an obvious move. Better for teams, who have more time to figure out who should be buyers or sellers. Better for media and fans, who would see an uptick in action.
I approve this. I always thought the trade deadline was too early
I’d push it one step further just for entertainment purposes.
Week 10 trade deadline but week 12 or 14 should be teams can pass guys thru waivers. Any team that picks him up can work out a trade in 72 hours. Similar to what baseball had all those years after the actual trade deadline. Guys must be on roster prior to week 15 to qualify for playoffs.
Watching lower seeded teams block higher seeded teams from grabbing guys but also potentially beefing up their roster before playoffs I’m sure would add an intriguing element.
The only issue with this outline is that any team should be able to pass guys through waivers. A team is either eligible to trade a player, or it is not. To only allow playoff teams to trade would be an unfair advantage. For Example, the Chiefs can trade but the Bronco’s cannot?
The Washington Commanders have 6 picks in the first 105 picks of the 2024 draft. For Example: If the Commanders wanted to work out a trade with The Bears for Justin Fields, the teams can either work the trade or they cannot. Either extend the deadline, or do not.
Any team can pass guys thru waivers
Only team passing guys thru waivers would most likely be non playoff teams who put a veteran out there they probably don’t resign and recoup draft picks. Or a young player hoping to hit a kings ransom from a desperate team. Playoff teams would be putting in claims for guys non playoff teams put on waivers.
Both chiefs and broncos can make trades. Broncos for guys they put on waiver. Chiefs for guys they put claims on.
Typically waiver claim systems follow a priority and if you put a waiver claim in on one guy it drops your priority on other players you put a claim on so one team can’t just hoard claims and block everyone.
But playoff teams can put guys on waivers too. Idk why they would but they’d be afforded the opportunity to do so. In the mlb they did it to test value.
Just to clarify
Any team can pass guys thru waivers
Any team can claim guys put on waivers
Playoffs vs non playoffs teams can operate freely in the system
Only restrictions are really
1. You have 3 days to work out a trade and if you don’t the team who put player on waives either rescinds the waiver or lets them go for nothing
2. You can’t put them back on waivers again if you do you lose them for nothing
3. Blocking is possible and nfc waivers would go thru nfc first then afc and vice versa
But the point of the system would be theoretically to make the playoffs as interesting as possible with lower seeds having a second opportunity a month down the road to sure up their roster or a team that sold at the deadline is suddenly back in the race ala browns Steelers and such
NFLPA will never approve of that baseball-style system.
Does it really matter? A total of six (6) trades were made on deadline day and a total of 10 during the deadline week. It’s not like the teams in contention made a flurry of moves to try to patch a hole or replace a key injury.
Cost Detroit for not trading. Their D could have sued help on the Lins and at CB.
The point is that moving the deadline back would facilitate more trades
More teams would be willing sellers with those two extra weeks of information.
“We wanted to make sure we maintained the competitive integrity of the season so you don’t get into player dumping late in the year.”
Huh? It’s seems to me pushing the trade deadline back would actually INCREASE the occurrence of player dumping as teams became more certain that their season was circling the drain.
It works in both ways though. Like you’re right that if a team was folding by Week 8 then two extra weeks gives them more time to trade more players but on the flip side a team that might’ve been reluctant sellers at a Week 8 deadline might find themselves at or above .500 two weeks later and convince themselves to make some trades for a playoff push.
Since this would be beneficial for the league there is no way King Roger will support this move. He’s as bad as it gets for a league commissioner.
Every time I see that photo of him it makes me wonder if he’s getting radiation treatments to keep him from turning into a mutant.
I mean sports commissioners are supposed to be representing the interests of their bosses…in this case Goodell’s bosses are the 32 owners. So if the majority of owners don’t want this, it won’t get passed.
Realistically if you compare him to MLB, NBA, and NHL commissioners he’s probably the 2nd best behind Adam Silver, albeit mostly by default. Nobody likes Bettman (NHL) and people might dislike Manfred (MLB) more because he has a habit of putting his own foot in his mouth. Football is on top of an ever growing mountain peak in regards to popularity and profitability during Goodell’s tenure…how much of that is Goodell’s work remains to be seen. But given how successful the NFL has been, either Goodell hasn’t done anything to royally screw it up or has been one of the main drivers of its success both of which deserve some level of credit.
Comparing the CEO of one league to the CEO of another is a typical Dumb Sportsball Fan trope. Longing for the good old days of Pete Rozelle is another. Remember 1982 and 1984?
Goodell is the best commissioner of the best pro sport & no one can even see his tail lights. Popularity, exposure, & pure profit has grown leaps & bounds. The NBA doesn’t even try to hide its favoritism of certain players & teams & Silver is an O’Brien clone in that respect.