If it feels like the NFL trade deadline should be here by now, your internal clock is well-tuned. In previous years, the deadline for deals came on the Tuesday after Week 8. Following an offseason vote, however, the league pushed back the deadline one week, giving teams an extra game to evaluate their roster and playoff chances before deciding whether they want to make moves.
With so many organizations growing more comfortable with the idea of making in-season trades, the hardest part for some general managers might be determining whether they should add or subtract talent at the deadline. While the extra week should help make each team's playoff odds that much clearer, ESPN's Football Power Index (FPI) suggests the vast majority of teams are still facing an uncertain future. Five teams have at least a 95% chance of advancing to the playoffs, while seven have seen their playoff odds dip below 5%. The 1-7 Panthers have dropped below the 0.1% threshold our simulation uses to signify any chance at all.
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While we can't see the future, let's try to help all of those teams in the middle. Looking around the league, we'll identify the teams that should be interested in adding players to their roster over the next week and the ones that should be pursuing draft picks in return for shipping off talent, and we'll talk at more length about the teams in the middle.
Twelve teams require a real debate about what they should do at the deadline, either because their chances are murky or because they don't have a habit of acting rationally. I'll get to them in a moment, but let's quickly run through the obvious teams on either side of the trade ledger (in alphabetical order by nickname):
Jump to a section:
Bengals | Broncos | Bucs
Cardinals | Colts | Cowboys
Dolphins | Falcons | Jets
Rams | Saints | Seahawks
Teams that clearly should add before the deadline
49ers, Bears, Bills, Chargers, Chiefs, Commanders, Eagles, Lions, Packers, Ravens, Steelers, Texans, Vikings