NFL Trade Rumors
There’s a lot of time and energy invested in speculating about potential trade candidates this time of year. We have an article we’ve been updating weekly with trade candidates from around the league, and the list of names is at 81 right now.
Sometimes, though, it’s just as instructive to know who isn’t going to be traded. Teams will shoot their shot for certain guys under the principle of “you have not because you ask not,” and it results in a lot of names floating around in rumors this time of year. There are a lot of practical considerations that go into any trade, though, and there are situations where it just does not add up.
It’s always risky to come out and definitively say something is not going to happen, as the NFL has a way of proving the overconfident wrong. But in this article, we’re going to call our shot anyway. Here are six players we have a high, high degree of confidence will not be traded before the NFL trade deadline:
Brown has been one of the biggest names to circulate in trade rumors so far this fall, and there are a bunch of reasons. There’s naturally a lot of interest in big-name skill position players and Brown is one of the best receivers in football. He also plays in one of the most engaged and invested football cities in the country in Philadelphia. That’s put extra attention on all of the questions surrounding Brown, including how much he was getting the ball to start the season, the role that played in the Eagles’ struggles on offense and the relationship between him, the team and his quarterback.
Wide receivers are known for having a certain set of personality traits, and that does make Brown’s happiness or lack thereof worth monitoring. He wouldn’t be the first receiver to either try and force his way into a change of scenery or just wear thin his welcome. That’s why other teams are keeping tabs on the situation, with multiple anonymous quotes coming out in the past month from high-ranking front office executives saying they expected Philadelphia to make Brown available.
So far the Eagles haven’t gotten that memo, with multiple reports in recent weeks all stating that the team is rebuffing any trade interest in Brown. There are plenty of football reasons the Eagles wouldn’t want to move Brown — and he put up a reminder of that with four catches, 121 yards and two touchdowns in a Week 7 win over the Vikings. He’s still the best pass catcher on a team with Super Bowl goals.
It’s also, practically speaking, incredibly difficult for the Eagles to trade Brown without forcing a major recalibration in their budget. Philadelphia uses a unique structure for its major contracts, tying up most of the money in signing bonuses and option bonuses that spread the cap hit out over a longer period of time. It allows the Eagles to...
