NFL Trades We Wish We Would Have Seen at the 2023 Deadline

For the second straight year, the NFL trade deadline brought with it a flurry of activity.

The Minnesota Vikings traded Ezra Cleveland to the Jacksonville Jaguars while acquiring quarterback Joshua Dobbs from the Arizona Cardinals.

The Washington Commanders dealt pass-rushers Montez Sweat and Chase Young to the Chicago Bears and San Francisco 49ers, respectively.

The Seattle Seahawks snagged Leonard Williams from the New York Giants, while the Detroit Lions got wideout Donovan Peoples-Jones from the Cleveland Browns. The Buffalo Bills nabbed cornerback Rasul Douglas from the Green Bay Packers.

We'll soon discover how these moves impact the rest of the 2023 season, but it's also fun to wonder what might have been.

Below, we'll examine some trades that would have made sense for the players and teams involved and why we would have enjoyed seeing them come to fruition.

After watching rookie quarterback Will Levis throw for four touchdowns in his starting debut, the Tennessee Titans' decision to hang onto players such as running back Derrick Henry and DeAndre Hopkins made sense.

Tennessee was willing to trade—it sent safety Kevin Byard to the Philadelphia Eagles—but neither player reportedly generated a ton of interest.

"Right now they're not getting much interest, and I do not sense that this is going to be a trade that does happen," ESPN's Jeff Darlington told Friday's NFL Live.

Henry, who has 664 scrimmage yards in seven games, can still carry an offense, but he'll turn 30 in January. He'll probably depart Tennessee in the offseason, and he would have been a great half-season stopgap for Cleveland.

Cleveland lost star running back Nick Chubb to a season-ending knee injury in Week 2, and it has relied on a committee of Pierre Strong, Kareem Hunt and Jerome Ford since. While the Browns have maintained a solid 4.4 yards-per-carry average, it would be nice to have a bruising every-down back to complement their hard-hitting defense.

The Browns have not been able to rely on sound quarterback play—Deshaun Watson remains injured, and he, Dorian Thompson-Robinson and P.J. Walker have combined for 11 interceptions.

Henry carries a substantial $10.5 million base salary, but the Browns have the second-most cap space in the league.

The Kansas City Chiefs may still wind up in the Super Bowl this season. Their defense ranks second in points allowed, and Patrick Mahomes remains one of the best signal-callers in the game.

However, it's been clear all season that not even Mahomes can lift what has been an underwhelming wide receiver group. Kansas City ranks 12th in scoring, and it mustered a mere nine points against a Denver Broncos defense that surrendered 70 to the Miami Dolphins in Week 3.

Tua Tagovailoa hasn't overtaken Mahomes as the best quarterback in the NFL, but he does have a better collection of wide receivers. The Chiefs may not have missed Tyreek Hill last season, but they do now.

Hopkins could have been the perfect deadline catch for Kansas City. He showed in Week 8 (128 yards, 3 TDs) that he can still separate, and he's on pace for the seventh 1,000-yard campaign of his career.

The 31-year-old also has a more-than-manageable cap hit of just $3.7 million this season, making him a realistic option for a Chiefs team with only $4.8 million in cap room.

Pairing Hopkins with tight end Travis Kelce would have brought some excitement to a Kansas City offense that has looked barely above-average far too often this season.

Though the Giants were willing to move Williams, they never had interest in trading Pro Bowl running back Saquon Barkley.

"Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams and New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley aren't getting moved by their teams. Both teams have told that to interested parties," The Athletic's Dianna Russini wrote on Saturday.

Moving Barkley would have made plenty of sense. The 2-6 Giants aren't likely to make a playoff push, and he is set to be a free agent in March.

New York can't easily get out of Daniel Jones' contract until 2025, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't consider a top QB prospect like Caleb Williams or Drake Maye if the opportunity to draft one becomes available.

The Giants would hold the fourth pick in the draft if the season ended today, per Tankathon.

While the Pittsburgh Steelers might have needed to clear cap space to make a move for the second half of Barkley's $8.1 million base salary, it would have made for a fun pairing.

The 4-3 Steelers remain in the thick of the AFC North race, but they've been held back by a bland Matt Canada offense and a ground game averaging just 3.4 yards per carry. While Najee Harris was a rookie Pro Bowler in 2021, it's becoming clear that he's closer to Trent Richardson than Derrick Henry.

Barkley has proved he can thrive with a talent-starved supporting cast, and he'd provide some much-needed juice to a unit that has none aside from the occasional deep pass to George Pickens.

It wasn't much of a surprise to see the Las Vegas Raiders hang onto wide receiver Davante Adams. Moving him would have required them to eat $54.4 million in dead money, and there aren't a ton of teams who could easily take on the prorated remainder of his $14.7 million cap hit.

Still, it would have been awesome to see the Indianapolis Colts land the six-time Pro Bowler.

The Colts have found a serviceable tandem in Michael Pittman Jr. and rookie Josh Downs this season, but the former will be a free agent in March. The Colts are also expected to have fourth overall pick Anthony Richardson (shoulder) back under center for the start of 2024.

With all due respect to Pittman and Downs, Richardson could really use a star wideout like Adams—a dependable downfield target if ever there was one.

The 30-year-old is coming off of three consecutive All-Pro campaigns, and despite getting some putrid quarterback play in Las Vegas this year, he's managed to catch 47 passes for 539 yards and three touchdowns.

Jimmy Garoppolo isn't the answer in Las Vegas, and the Raiders have to think long and hard about targeting a potential franchise quarterback in the 2024 draft.

Indy could give its franchise quarterback an elite receiver in Adams—who is under contract through 2026—upon his return while making Gardner Minshew even more fun to watch in the interim.

Giving up a mere 2025 sixth-round pick for People-Jones was a brilliant move for the Lions.

While the 24-year-old has fallen out of the game plan this season, he racked up 61 catches, 839 yards and three touchdowns in 2022. He'll be a great complement to Amon-Ra St. Brown and Josh Reynolds in Detroit.

New England Patriots pass-rusher Josh Uche could have been a terrific complement to Aidan Hutchinson. The Patriots did receive calls on the impending 2024 free agent, according to Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, but they opted not to make a deal.

Uche hasn't been as productive this season, for a couple of reasons. He's been dealing with ankle and toe injuries, and he hasn't had Matthew Judon rushing opposite him in two of his six games.

A year ago, though, Uche racked up 11.5 sacks and 25 quarterback pressures while playing only 38 percent of the defensive snaps.

Detroit's pass rush has been good more often than not, but it took a hit when James Houston landed on injured reserve with an ankle fracture.

Lions coach Dan Campbell believes the linebacker will return this season, but Uche would have been a tremendous get.

The 25-year-old has shown he can produce in a rotational role, and given his impending free-agent status, he likely could have been had at a bargain price.

The San Francisco 49ers went into deadline day with the most cap space in the NFL. They did land Young, but we'd have liked to see general manager John Lynch do a little more.

Specifically, we'd have liked to see San Francisco land Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson. He is a tremendous talent, but he'll be a free agent in March, and Chicago did grant him permission to seek a trade.

"After days of discussions, Johnson's agent Chris Ellison received permission around midnight. 16 hours to make it happen," NFL Media's Ian Rapoport posted early Tuesday morning on X, formerly known as Twitter.

It's become clear over the past three weeks that the 49ers' secondary is suspect. It allowed P.J. Walker to engineer a comeback victory in Week 6 and then got shredded by Kirk Cousins and Joe Burrow in consecutive weeks.

No. 2 cornerback Isaiah Oliver has allowed an opposing passer rating of 105.5 in coverage.

Johnson, meanwhile, has been one of the few bright spots in an otherwise underwhelming Chicago secondary. In six appearances, the 24-year-old has recorded 18 tackles, four passes defended, two interceptions and a defensive touchdown. He's allowed an opposing passer rating of only 44.3 in coverage.

Pairing Young with Nick Bosa was a tremendous idea. Partnering those two with No. 1 corner Charvarius Ward and Johnson would have been even better.

We can understand the Vikings hanging on to pass-rusher Danielle Hunter. While Kirk Cousins is done for the year with a torn Achilles, Minnesota is 4-4 and just made the move for Dobbs.

Clearly, the Vikings believe they can still each the playoffs this season.

However, the future is very uncertain, as Cousins will be a 2024 free agent. So will Hunter. Cashing in now wouldn't have been unreasonable.

We'd have like to see Hunter land with the Jaguars, which have one star pass-rusher in Josh Allen and little else to boost the quarterback pursuit. He has recorded nine of Jacksonville's 16 sacks this season.

With an inconsistent pass rush, the Jaguars have fielded the 31st-ranked pass defense.

Hunter has recorded 10 sacks and 17 quarterback pressures. Pairing him with Allen would have given the Jags, arguably, the best pass-rushing duo in the NFL.

While Jacksonville has just $6.7 million in cap space, general manager Trent Baalke could have found a way to absorb the second half of the 29-year-old's $10 million base salary.

Minnesota may or may not still be a playoff team, but Jacksonville is looking like one of the AFC's best. Taking a big swing at the deadline and landing Hunter might have put the Jaguars over the top.

On October 14, Russini reported that the Raiders were looking to add a pass-rusher while also seeking to trade wide receiver Hunter Renfrow.

The fact that Las Vegas couldn't find a take for Renfrow and his $6.5 million base salary was one of the least surprising developments of the trade deadline.

While the 27-year-old was a Pro Bowler in 2021, he was hampered by injuries, including a concussion, and became an afterthought in former head coach Josh McDaniels' offense.

Renfrow tied his season high with four targets in Monday's loss to Detroit, and his relatively heavy use may have come in a last-ditch effort to generate some trade value.

We'd have liked to see him land with the New York Jets, who were open to moving pass-rusher Carl Lawson, according to Russini.

A player-for-player swap would have gotten the Raiders the complementary pass-rusher they reportedly wanted. Lawson, 28, hasn't been used much this season, but he had seven sacks and 26 quarterback pressures last year.

Renfrow, meanwhile, could have given the Jets and Zach Wilson another option in the slot. Randall Cobb was supposed to fill that role, but he was signed to complement Aaron Rodgers, who has been out since Week 1 with a torn Achilles.

Despite playing 49 percent of the offensive snaps in six games, Cobb has just three catches for 20 yards on the season.

This would have been the rare trade in which everybody involved—including both teams and both players—would have won, and we're a little sad it didn't happen.

*Cap and contract information via Spotrac. Advanced statistics from Pro Football Reference.