ClutchPoints
After more than a dozen trades that are sure to reshape the league for years to come, the 2025 NFL trade deadline has officially passed, with fans still sifting through the aftermath to determine the winners, losers, and everyone in between.
When it comes to losers, it’s really a mixed bag of teams that pulled off bad deals and teams that weren’t aggressive enough. The Dallas Cowboys went all in on their defensive front, acquiring three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Quinnen Williams for a 2027 first-round pick, a 2026 second-round pick, and former first-round pick Mazi Smith. While they are unquestionably a better team with Williams on the roster, the Cowboys aren’t very good, boasting just three wins after taking a tough loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Monday Night Football. Or is this more about the future, replacing one generational talent with another All-Pro caliber player, even if they don’t exactly play the same position?
Other teams, like the Chiefs, simply opted to do nothing despite having clear needs on their roster. Kansas City reportedly inquired about Breece Hall but wasn’t willing to pay the third-round pick New York wanted for the rusher, with the fourth they offered being rejected by the Jets. They now enter the back half of the season with a major question mark in the run game, and may have to rely on the passing game even more, which had been up-and-down in 2025.
But which teams were the big winners of the 2025 NFL trade deadline? Which general managers looked at their roster, looked at the field, and decided to make a move to either get better now or in the future? There are three teams that really stand above the rest.
Heading into the 2025 NFL season, the New York Jets were widely considered a dark-horse team to do some damage under new head coach Aaron Glenn.
Loading up with quarterback Justin Fields while extending Garrett Wilson to a nine-figure deal, the wheels have fallen off for the Jets in a major way, to the point where they were all but eliminated from the playoffs before Halloween, with a win in Week 9 failing to tip the scales in any meaningful way.
Could the Jets have chalked their woes up to bad luck like their first season with Aaron Rodgers? Sure, but instead, they decided to strip their team down in order to focus on the future, trading away Quinnen Williams, Sauce Gardner, Michael Carter II, and Ja’Sir Taylor for an absolute boatload of draft picks.
Now initially, the idea of saying goodbye to Williams and Gardner was shocking to fans of Gang Green, as the duo were two of the three core players on the roster deemed worthy of being part of the future alongside Wilson, but it’s hard to argue with the return, as the Jets were able to land three more first round pick and a second round pick, in...
