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The NFL trade deadline has come and gone. The Jets made many moves. Two big-name receivers were sent to Jacksonville and Seattle. It honestly felt like it could have been bigger than it was, like we were waiting for a final punch to send us all off into the night with. But instead what we had was the Jets asking the NFL if they were ready to be real competitors, and the NFL said “yes” in some cases and “no” in others. Let’s get into it. 1) Is what the Jets did actually a fire sale? I don’t actually think so. While they parted with Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams, they held firm on Garrett Wilson, and it’s hard to argue that they got bad value for their players. The list of non-quarterbacks traded for two first-round picks is full of illustrious losses for the team acquiring the player, and even when the player plays well, ala Khalil Mack for the Bears, it rarely changes everything. Quinnen Williams fetched a first-round pick and a second-round pick, apparently didn’t want to be in New York, and has one sack this year. The Jets have to actually use these picks to build something, because what looked like a defense-heavy rebuild is now … you know, nothing. But they were already getting exposed in Aaron Glenn’s first season. You can see the logic in moving on from these players given that this wasn’t getting turned around tomorrow. Adonai Mitchell is the only player the Jets returned worth talking about from a fantasy perspective – the volume might be there in time, but the Jets passing game is so bereft of talent (read: quarterbacks that can throw and stay healthy) that it’s not worth splashing FAAB dollars on Mitchell. 2) Does Daniel Jones have more leverage than any quarterback in the league, again? With the Colts trading two first-round picks and having no path to acquiring any other quarterback beyond free agency, it sure feels like they just pot-committed to Daniel Jones for the foreseeable future. Jones, who found four years and $160 million from the Giants when Saquon Barkley required the use of the franchise tag in 2023, feels like he could easily become a $50 million a year quarterback after the Sauce Gardner trade. It’s hard to say that he hasn’t earned at least a Sam Darnold-sized contract after how this season has gone, but the leverage the Colts just handed him is astronomical. He’s going to remain a low-end fantasy QB1 for the rest of this season, but being able to recapture the magic in the runback is the real question Jones has to answer for. 3) Is Quinnen Williams really something for Jerry Jones to hang his hat on? One good way to understand the leverage that Jones was starting with here is “I have a natural urgency because of my age..” which is never a great spot to start negotiations from. The only things the Cowboys have left from their Micah Parsons haul is a small jump up from the second round to the first round, Williams, and Kenny Clark. I actually liked the swing on Logan Wilson earlier today, and I think Williams is a big step in the right direction as far as creating negative plays. The Cowboys, at 3-5-1, were not a Quinnen Williams away from competing in 2025. That back seven will remain ghastly even if I think Wilson is a step in the right direction and was unfairly scapegoated by an incredibly weird Bengals organizational fiat. Nothing can be done about Matt Eberflus for now. Do not pick up the Dallas D/ST and think you’re getting somewhere. We all get a little melancholy when we think we may be dying. It’s just that most people with money settle for a motorcycle or an unhealthy hobby instead of refusing to negotiate with the world’s best pass rusher and trading him for two older defensive tackles who we’ll also have to pay. 4) What does the Rashid Shaheed trade mean for the Seahawks? This is my favorite fit of the trade deadline. Shaheed is going to thrive in a shot-play role for Seattle and (unfortunately) immediately bankrupt any stock that was being held on Tory Horton and Cooper Kupp. I think Jaxson Smith-Njigba could be a minor loser here too from a fantasy perspective, since Shaheed is a real target-earning thread, but if Shaheed really thrives they can obviously both eat. For the Saints, they ultimately traded Shaheed and a fifth-round pick for Devaughn Vele and a seventh-round pick. And Vele wasn’t actually playing much for them up to this point. I think Mickey Loomis’ brain should be studied by scientists. I’m prescribing mild fantasy volume upgrades for Chris Olave and Juwan Johnson, who have been the only two reliable pass-catchers New Orleans have employed this season other than Shaheed. Unfortunately those upgrades are immediately cancelled by playing with Tyler Shough. Olave was already valued about right, but the fantasy world probably jumped too early on the supposition that returns for Taysom Hill and Foster Moreau would cut off Johnson. Johnson should be on the TE1 line, perhaps as high as a mid-range TE1, for the remainder of the season. 5) Does the Jakobi Meyers trade spell doom for Brian Thomas Jr.? No. Brian Thomas Jr. has already done a good enough job creating his own doom, thanks. Between the high-ankle sprain and his inability to reliably complete catches or sell-out for close targets, he’s had the stone-cold worst season for any early-round pick that hasn’t been seriously injured. Thomas did the Meyers trade to himself. If the Jaguars thought he could handle 10 targets a game, they would’ve been there already. Even when Thomas comes back from the lowest high-ankle sprain we’ve seen to this day, he’ll probably be in the WR3 zone. Meyers does, however, splinter what I’ll call Big Parker Washington, a conglomerate that has been building behind the scenes over the years by actually running the routes that Trevor Lawrence thinks he will run. Washington is not really an outside receiver, and neither is Meyers. I expect Washington will play the role for now in Week 10, with Meyers eventually replacing him and Washington (and Dyami Brown) fading into the distance in the next month when Travis Hunter and Thomas return to action. Meyers is probably a WR4 once the cavalry arrives and can be started as a WR3 for now. The Raiders side of this is playing 11-personnel on 60 percent of the snaps, which sounds great until you realize that you’re trailing 13-0 in the third quarter. Brock Bowers, now healthy, will feast. Ashton Jeanty will get there on volume. Nobody else here necessarily needs to be rostered in shallow leagues. 6) Is Breece Hall the most down bad player in the NFL right now? Yes, yes he is. “Sick about my bruddas man happy for them but man im sick rn,” Hall said on X in a now-deleted post after the NFL Trade Deadline expired on Tuesday. Hall wasn’t traded at the deadline, continuing what sure smells like a transition tag in the offseason, because the Jets couldn’t find anyone willing to come off a third-round pick. It’s a tough outcome for fantasy – there are several situations that Hall could have absolutely thrived in – and it sure doesn’t feel like the Jets are going to commit to Hall either. There are several depressing things about modern sports and one of the loudest of them continues to be the plight of the running back. 7) Which players should fantasy managers be celebrating general managers for not moving on from? If Jaylen Waddle had been dealt – and every indication is he would have been if someone had been willing to offer a first and more – it would be hard for him to find a situation where he was as high and reliable in the pecking order as he is in post-Tyreek Hill Miami. It’s a huge win for Waddle-reliant managers that Miami held their nose on the offers they did receive. Troy Franklin, who I am apparently contractually obligated to write about in every article this season, is a huge winner as the Broncos stand pat at the deadline. Already out-targeting Courtland Sutton, there were rumors that Denver was looking to upgrade at wideout in a move that surely would have cut down Franklin’s fantasy value. If only the Broncos could also play the Cowboys defense every week. Darius Slayton and Wan’Dale Robinson look to be the only two viable wideouts for a team that didn’t add at the deadline and trails every week. And if you don’t love Slayton at his touchdown-dropping worst, you’ll never see him at his injured best. Calvin Austin remains the only other game in the Steelers wideout room not named DK Metcalf. 8) Which players have lost fantasy value because they weren’t moved? -It sure would have been nice if David Njoku and Harold Fannin each had their own squad, since Cleveland’s passing game pie isn’t big enough for the both of them to be TE1s. -Calvin Ridley’s value could have skyrocketed in a better situation, but instead he’s playing out the rest of this year on what amounts to an expansion team. Tony Pollard, too, is suffering this fate.
