Highlights
- The NFL Trade Deadline has been moved to November 5, the Tuesday after Week 9.
- The date coincides with the US Presidential Election, making for a busy day for NFL fans.
- The NFL Trade Deadline is typically less active than other sports’ deadlines, though recent years have seen increased activity.
The NFL Trade Deadline is a key event on the league’s annual calendar, as it represents an ultimatum for teams to improve their roster before the playoff push at the end of the regular season.
At the League Meetings in March, the NFL Rules Committee agreed to move the Trade Deadline back one week from its usual spot Post-Week 8. With the recent addition of a 17th game to the regular season schedule, the deadline no longer took place at the midway point of the season, instead taking place when the season was only about 44 percent completed.
Now, it will take place on November 5, the Tuesday after Week 9 on the 18-week schedule. Of course, that day just so happens to coincide with one of the biggest events in the United States.
Though this is a paradigmatic example of “bigger things are happening than sports”, it will be a funny sight to see fans constantly refreshing Twitter while waiting in line to vote for the next President of the United States.
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NFL Trade Deadline Has History Of Being Quiet
Other sports tend to have more activity surrounding the deadline
NFL fans know well that the Trade Deadline, while an important event in theory, rarely has the sort of excitement and frenetic activity that other sports do at their respective deadlines.
Baseball has long been home to the best trade deadline in sports, mostly thanks to the presence and value of prospects rather than draft picks as trade assets (i.e., it’s much easier for teams to agree on the value of a player when they get players in return, rather than future draft considerations).
Basketball tends to see up-and-down deadlines, though the ability to trade first-round picks that are far off into the future does make it easier to grease the wheels on moving superstars in-season. Just this past year, the Dallas Mavericks acquired Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington on deadline day, and those two players were instrumental in their run to the NBA Finals.
However, just because the NFL Trade Deadline tends to be quieter relative to the rest of the major American sports, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t any activity.
At the 2023 NFL Trade Deadline, the Chicago Bears acquired Montez Sweat for a second-round pick (and signed him to a subsequent extension) in a blockbuster deal. Then, the San Francisco 49ers picked up defensive end Chase Young in exchange for a third-round pick, and he played a key part in their run to the Super Bowl.
As such, NFL fans should plan for November 5 to be a very busy day of fulfilling their civic duty, both by voting and keeping up with all the last-minute trades around the league.
Source: NFL
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