Week 10 of the 2025 NFL season is here, and the 2025 NFL trade deadline is past us. Insiders Jeremy Fowler and Dan Graziano have been making calls to sources around the league for the latest news and buzz on key situations and the biggest deals.
Here is everything they are hearing on the Jets’ big deadline day and the draft-pick haul they received for Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams. Jeremy and Dan also hit on other intriguing deadline moves and share intel on players who didn’t get dealt despite some buzz around their names.
It’s all here, as our national reporters answer big questions and empty their notebooks coming out of the deadline and heading into Week 10.
Jump to:
Fallout from the Jets’ deadline day trades
More trades receiving leaguewide buzz
Noteworthy players who weren’t traded
Graziano: It wasn’t long ago that the Jets’ defense was viewed as a top-five unit. That is obviously no longer the case after they traded Gardner and Williams — their two best defensive players — on the same day. So, the Jets are going to be viewed as a desirable opponent for the rest of this season. But the return is the key here.
New York’s deadline deals leave them with two first-round picks and two second-round picks in the 2026 draft and three first-round picks in 2027. The way this is being perceived by people I’ve talked to is that the Jets are determined to do whatever it takes to resolve their long-term quarterback situation in one of the next two drafts. Having five first-round picks in the next two years will enable the Jets to trade up if that is what’s needed to finally find their franchise QB.
Fowler: Yeah, it’s hard to argue with the Jets’ compensation in both cases. They received significant capital, probably more than I would have forecast for both players. My read is the Jets were not proactively seeking to trade these players in the days leading up to the draft, as multiple teams that discussed potential deals with the Jets have said. But the Colts leaned heavily on the concept of a Gardner trade, and once a deal for him materialized, it became easier to deal Williams, who had endured enough in his six-plus seasons in New York.
Parting with a young star player such as Gardner is tough, but the Jets shed significant salary while stocking themselves with high picks. And they already ranked in the bottom half of the league in total defense and rushing defense with these players on expensive contracts. Might as well exhaust every option to secure a QB in the future.
Graziano: One of the most interesting aspects of this is how tradable Gardner’s contract was, even though it was signed this past offseason. Because the signing bonus was relatively small ($13.75 million), the dead money cap hit for the Jets in 2026 will be $11 million. That’s a small price to pay for a pair of first-round picks and a talented young wide receiver in Adonai Mitchell. The Colts will have to pay Gardner $25.5 million in fully guaranteed money in 2026, but his cap number next year will be just $9.5 million; he’ll cost less against the Colts’ cap than he will against the Jets’ cap!
Gardner is 25 and signed through 2030, so this felt like a win-win. Williams, meanwhile, had let it be known in recent weeks that he wanted to be traded, and while the Jets weren’t eager to do it, they obviously took enough calls and got the price where they needed it to be.
Fowler: Both teams will view Gardner’s deal as a financial win. Indy pays Gardner the minimum this year before owing him around $70 million in total from 2026 to 2028, which is totally manageable. The Jets owed Williams nearly $22 million in 2026, and he eventually would have wanted a new deal.
I’m a bit surprised the Jets didn’t find a way to deal Breece Hall, but the running back market never intensified. No backs were dealt this week. The Jets wanted a second-round pick for Jermaine Johnson, but I’m told coach Aaron Glenn said to Johnson that he wanted the edge rusher as part of the plans and valued that Johnson wanted to be a Jet long term. But it felt like one of those two moves could have happened.
Fowler: Seattle acquiring wide receiver Rashid Shaheed from the Saints for fourth- and fifth-round picks generated plenty of talk. Several teams were looking for a wideout, which likely drew up the price. New Orleans wanted a third-round pick and instead got a similar value with two early Day 3 picks. Sitting at 6-2, Seattle easily could have stood pat with its current roster. But the Seahawks knew that Cooper Kupp is injury-prone (he missed Week 9) and that rookie Tory Horton, though thriving, had battled injuries at Colorado State and is on the slender side. Shaheed gives Seattle more depth for the stretch run — and a burner to complement Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Graziano: The Seahawks believe Shaheed can help them in a variety of ways. Yes, he has the elite downfield speed; he is from a track family and received more track offers than football offers out of high school. But they also like his skills on other routes, including in the screen game. And he helps them as a kick and punt returner. So, Shaheed is an all-around useful player to add to an already strong roster.
The Jaguars landing Jakobi Meyers was intriguing. I think most believe it says a lot about where they are with their wide receiver room. Travis Hunter is on injured reserve. Brian Thomas Jr. is banged up. And the room was incredibly young to begin with. A reliable veteran such as Meyers would be a good addition for the Jaguars even if everyone was healthy. They continue to work on getting quarterback Trevor Lawrence right, and all the drops they’ve had aren’t helping. The Jaguars lead the league with 19 drops. Meyers doesn’t drop many passes, with only 11 drops in his seven-year career and a total of two since the start of the 2024 campaign.
Fowler: Meyers is a steady possession receiver who should be a friendly target for Lawrence. But I’m more interested in the teams that didn’t acquire him — Pittsburgh, Buffalo and others were in the receiver market. Meyers had enough of a market that Las Vegas knew it could get real compensation, netting a similar package to what the Saints got for Shaheed.
How Baltimore played the plus-minus game was noteworthy. In the Ravens’ two big trades this cycle, they essentially exchanged a high-upside edge rusher in Odafe Oweh for two solid veterans in edge rusher Dre’Mont Jones and safety Alohi Gilman. The Ravens weren’t getting production out of Oweh, who is now balling with the Chargers. But Jones is on a hot streak of his own, with 4.5 sacks over the past four games for Tennessee. And Jones is only 28. Gilman, also 28, has 16 total tackles, a pass deflection, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery in three games with Baltimore. So, while the Ravens’ trades weren’t flashy, they signaled sound decision-making from a team that usually makes sound decisions.
Graziano: The Gilman deal allows the Ravens to play safety Kyle Hamilton closer to the line of scrimmage, where they needed help. Baltimore knows how to do this. I’m confident the Ravens will run down Pittsburgh and win the AFC North in spite of their terrible start to the season.
I guess we should mention the Chargers’ buzzer-beater to acquire offensive tackle Trevor Penning from the Saints. The Chargers are brutally beaten up at tackle, with elite starters Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt lost for the season due to injury. They absolutely had to do something. It’s tough to find good offensive linemen (which is why they’ve spent so much to secure those tackles), and I don’t know if Penning is the answer. But Los Angeles has to make an effort to keep Justin Herbert protected to have any chance of hanging in the AFC West race with the Broncos and the Chiefs.
Graziano: I heard that at one point, the Cowboys were talking to the Jets about a deal that would have sent Dallas both Williams brothers — Quinnen and linebacker Quincy Williams. But that didn’t work out, and the Cowboys pivoted to former Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson.
I also heard the Dolphins got a lot of calls on wide receiver Jaylen Waddle — along with many of their other players — but that Miami told teams it would take a first-round pick to get Waddle, which no one was willing to do.
Fowler: Waddle’s situation was compelling. I was told the Broncos were among the teams that explored a deal for him, as an elite wideout at age 26 with a reasonable contract was enticing. The Steelers, the Giants and others either had interest or would have had interest if not for the steep price tag, which, depending on what team you asked, fluctuated between a first-round pick or a one-plus (a first-rounder and more). Some teams had a tough time getting a read on Miami’s intentions at the deadline, which is understandable four days removed from general manager Chris Grier’s firing.
Graziano: The Dolphins feel like they’re in some kind of awkward in-between phase. Firing Grier, who had been with the team a quarter-century and had apprenticed under the previous three Dolphins GMs, felt like ownership signaling a desire for an entirely new vision and organizational philosophy. We don’t know if the Dolphins also are going to be moving on from the head coach or even the starting quarterback in the offseason, and I thought they’d make more moves to accumulate draft capital as they pivot into whatever they decide is their future.
Instead, only edge rusher Jaelan Phillips was dealt, and the Dolphins seem like they’re still trying to make something out of their season at 2-7 while chasing the 7-2 Patriots and the 6-2 Bills. Unlike the Bengals, the Fins don’t have reason to feel like they can win their division, and I wonder if Miami will regret not making more moves.
Fowler: Tuesday seemed poised for edge rusher movement, but teams decided to hold onto their pass rushers. And speaking of Cincinnati, the 3-6 Bengals had a compelling case to move Trey Hendrickson. Teams I spoke to believed Cincinnati wanted a second-rounder for him. Dallas, which pursued Hendrickson, considered that steep.
Graziano: I honestly don’t blame the Cowboys, especially once the price for the less-accomplished Phillips turned out to be a third-round pick. As devastating as the past two losses have felt for the Bengals, they have reason to believe all is not lost. They’re 2.5 games behind a first-place Steelers team that is 28th in the league in total offense and has a plus-7 point differential over eight games. The Bengals have a head-to-head victory over Pittsburgh already and both games against Baltimore still to come, and they’re averaging 38 points per game since Joe Flacco took over as their starting QB. (Talk about pre-deadline impact deals, by the way.)
If the Bengals can just find a way to play decent defense over the final two months, and if they believe Joe Burrow has a chance to come back in December, they still have a shot. Giving up on a season in early November is a heavy decision, and I can’t blame them for not wanting to make it.
Fowler: Also, the running back market simply didn’t move on Tuesday. Along with the Jets keeping Hall, the Chargers seemed comfortable riding with Kimani Vidal until Omarion Hampton returns, and New England stood pat. I figured some combination of Hall, Cleveland’s Jerome Ford, Tennessee’s Tony Pollard, Miami’s Jaylen Wright and Baltimore’s Keaton Mitchell had a chance to land new homes, but none of them did.
Graziano: Yeah, I heard the Jets held firm on their request for a third-round pick for Hall, whom they might look to sign to a contract extension instead. (Although, Hall had been tweeting all Tuesday about the team’s other deals in a way that makes one think the feeling might not be mutual.)
Lastly, I heard the Giants dangled former first-round pick Evan Neal but couldn’t generate any interest for the tackle, even though several teams were looking for offensive line help.