Written by Jason La Canfora at CBS Sports.com
Every year I start to get my hopes up, just a little bit, at this point in the season. I try to convince myself that this will be the year when NFL general managers finally get a little more aggressive and ambitious and mirror their brethren in the NBA, NHL and MLB, and actually provide a little excitement at the trade deadline.
The football deadline will never be as exciting as those other sports for many reasons. Blame the intricacies of this game and how much nuance and teammate and prep time is required to learn schemes and playbooks. Or the parity of football and the fact that a midseason deadline ensures most teams are still at least somewhat viable playoff candidates. There are also no farm systems stocked with future prospects with which to package in trades.
But still, there should at least be a modicum of action. And with so many teams seemingly with at least one eye on the first overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft already, and eager to be in position to draft a quarterback very high in April if necessary, perhaps we’ll finally get more movement at the end of this month (the deadline is at 4 pm on October 31 this season, and hopefully things get spooky in a few front offices around Halloween).
No one wants to be seen as throwing in the towel on this season … but let’s also be real about where some young general managers are right now. Rookie GMs John Lynch (49ers), Brandon Beane (Bills) and Chris Ballard (Jets) inherited bad teams and have been willing to be bold already in reshaping their rosters with an emphasis on 2018 and beyond. Smart teams will get ahead of the curve before the offseason and, especially given the atrocious state of offensive line play, if you have an older tackle with a decent pedigree on a struggling team who might not be around in 2-3 years when the franchise turns around, well, I’d be shopping him around. The list of playoff hopeful teams who could use an upgrade include the Patriots, Packers (gutted by injuries), Seahawks, Cardinals, Panthers, Jaguars, Titans (the tackles are great but the interior linemen are getting beat), Ravens. OK, I’ll stop there, and I highly doubt that many of the above teams actually reach the postseason (Baltimore, Arizona, Jacksonville, Tennessee, I’m talking to you), but you get the idea.
There is no excuse not to be floating some ideas and taking the temperature of rival GMs as we get deeper into October. Here’s the case for why some teams should be more proactive marketing certain players ahead of the deadline:
Arizona Cardinals
This might be the end for the timeless receiver and the Cardinals are a whole lot closer to being 0-4 than they are to winning anything this season. They may have the worst line in the league, Carson Palmer is near the end too, and so, too, might be head coach Bruce Arians. Playing his entire career in Arizona would be special … but going out a champion on a Super Bowl team might be better. I’d give him that shot and it’s obvious the man can still play.
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