Ben SolakNov 4, 2025, 04:20 PM ETCloseBen Solak joined ESPN in 2024 as a national NFL analyst. He previously covered the NFL at The Ringer, Bleeding Green Nation and The Draft Network.
play1:03Schefter to McAfee: Jaguars, Steelers were interested in Jakobi MeyersAdam Schefter joins Pat McAfee to break down the Jaguars trading for Jakobi Meyers.
play2:26Rich Eisen approves of Jets’ return in Sauce Gardner tradeRich Eisen reacts to the Jets trading Sauce Gardner to the Colts for two first-round picks and Adonai Mitchell.
Schefter to McAfee: Jets, Colts felt comfortable to make Sauce Gardner trade (2:08)Adam Schefter joins Pat McAfee to break down how the Colts were able to trade for Sauce Gardner. (2:08)
Schefter to McAfee: Jaguars, Steelers were interested in Jakobi MeyersAdam Schefter joins Pat McAfee to break down the Jaguars trading for Jakobi Meyers.
Rich Eisen approves of Jets’ return in Sauce Gardner tradeRich Eisen reacts to the Jets trading Sauce Gardner to the Colts for two first-round picks and Adonai Mitchell.
Rich Eisen reacts to the Jets trading Sauce Gardner to the Colts for two first-round picks and Adonai Mitchell.
What an NFL trade deadline! Remember when the highlights were two decently sized trades including middle-round picks? Everyone say a big thank you to the Jets, as three first-round picks were dealt on deadline day! The Sauce Gardner trade is only the second in-season trade including multiple first-round selections in the past 30 years. What a thrill.
Identifying winners and losers on deadline day is always tough. The Jets will be made a winner or a loser for their efforts today not by my words, but by the picks they make over the next two or three years. Of course, we can grade the quality of their work now (spoiler, they are winners) — but this isn’t the real test. The real test is what comes next.
Aside from the fireworks over the Big Apple, I have winners and losers from the Saints’ busy day, the Patriots’ quiet one, the ever-active Ravens and the surprising Jakobi Meyers landing spot. Let’s dive in.
The Gardner trade is as stunning as it is impactful. Gardner was nowhere near the trade rumor mill until the moment the trade was announced, and with good reason: He signed a $120.4 million extension just last season.
Gardner was reportedly blindsided by the deal and did not ask to get out of New York, but he now goes from the one-win Jets to the two-loss Colts — as big a move up the NFL standings as a player could possibly take midseason. Gardner lands with Colts defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo, a highly creative coach who will play Gardner in more zone coverages, where he’s at his best with his length, ball skills and instincts.
The big extension was a win for Gardner this summer. Now, he has the chance to chase it with a ring.
But like Gardner, Williams’ play has tailed off in recent years. He had a pressure rate of 12.0% in 2024 (still quite good) and 8.0% so far this season (quite bad). His time to pressure is also falling — 2.74 seconds in 2022 (his All-Pro season), 2.79 seconds the following year, then 3.02 and now 3.16.
Of course, Williams is larger and a more reliable run defender than Odighizuwa — and he’s a better pass-rush player without question. But he’s 27 and turning 28, and I’m not convinced he’s one of the five best players at his position.
Williams will play his age-28 and age-29 seasons under contract for a total of $47.25 million; if he continues to play well, he could cash in again in Dallas. But even with the value on the contract considered, the price to acquire his contract feels unforgivably large.
The Jets have the right to the better of the Cowboys’ two first-round picks in 2027, as Dallas has both its own selection and Green Bay’s pick (from the Micah Parsons trade). This tiny detail has enormous ramifications. Should the Packers make an NFC run in 2026, while the Cowboys suffer a losing season, the Jets can move 15-20 picks in the first round just by retaining that optionality.
This is not a good trade in a vacuum, and it looks even worse when you remember the Cowboys traded Parsons away for two first-rounders. The only difference in trade return between the Parsons deal and the Williams deal was swapping a first for a second, and now the Cowboys are paying Williams with the money they would have used (in part) to pay Parsons.
Here’s a hypothetical. The Packers’ two first-round picks end up both at No. 29 — two losses in the NFC Championship Game. The Cowboys’ second-rounder next year ends up as the 42nd pick, and their first-rounder in 2027 ends up No. 16 — average. Different trade value charts will give you different sums, but these two packages are roughly equal. The Cowboys might have traded as much draft capital for Williams as they got for Parsons. That’s bad business.
On the entertainment value scale, this was the best trade of the day. It might bear good returns on the football field; Williams is a highly disruptive and talented player. But on the trade value scales, this deal was heavily weighted to the Jets.
Marcus Spears breaks down why he loves the Cowboys’ trade for Quinnen Williams.
Meyers really wanted to be traded — he requested a move over the summer — and he actually got traded. Excellent news!
Meyers turns 29 this week and has one year remaining on his deal. A productive back half of 2025, coupled with his excellent 2024, could generate a solid market for a three-year extension. Meyers’ last deal was a three-year, $33 million dollar contract, and $11 million per year is Tutu Atwell money, or Darius Slayton money. Meyers has been remarkably more impactful than that, and he is oh-so-close to cashing in.
It’s not the best landing spot; New England and Pittsburgh would have been better. But it’s workable.
Schefter to McAfee: Jaguars, Steelers were interested in Jakobi Meyers
Adam Schefter joins Pat McAfee to break down the Jaguars trading for Jakobi Meyers.
When the Saints traded Rashid Shaheed to the Seahawks for fourth- and fifth-round selections, they got a decent return. Shaheed is a 27-year-old receiver with one year left on his deal, and as one of the league’s premier speed threats, he has significant value even as a WR2 or WR3. They probably could have gotten more — Jakobi Meyers went for a fourth and a sixth just hours before, and he’s two years older without the cardinal field-stretching trait — but it’s a fine return.
It is frustrating, however, to frame the Shaheed trade relative to the Devaughn Vele trade from August. The Saints acquired a 27-year-old receiver this year when they sent a fourth- and a future seventh-round pick to the Broncos for Vele. Sure, he has three cheap years left on his deal — unlike Shaheed — so the Saints were making a move for cap health. They need to save money, and Shaheed would have been decently expensive on the open market next offseason.
But Vele has barely contributed to the Saints’ offensive efforts this season. He has five catches through eight games. His opportunity will increase with Shaheed gone, of course, but from the start of last season to today, Shaheed has 64 catches for 848 yards and five touchdowns. That’s a 17-game pace of 72.5 catches for 961 yards. Shaheed isn’t just a Marquise Goodwin or Marquez Valdes-Scantling. He’s a bona fide WR2.
The Saints got worse at wide receiver over the past few months, and their loss in talent outweighs their gain in cap space and draft capital to my eyes. Getting anything back for Trevor Penning, whom they sent to the Chargers for a 2028 conditional seventh-round pick, is a bright spot. But it’s tough to develop young quarterbacks without quality wide receiver play, and that’s the risk New Orleans is running these days.
What a day in New York. The Jets have shipped off two of their best young players in Gardner and Williams, and in return, they added three first-round picks, a second-round pick and two young players over the past four hours. This approach reveals an impressively long-term view on team reconstruction, and it offers the Jets plenty of chances to turn their roster over in a Lions-like rebuild.
In isolation, the Jets won both of their individual trades. Two first-rounders in return for Gardner, who needs to recover his peak form (not a sure thing!) in order to be worth that capital, is a solid move. I know others think the Colts dramatically overpaid, but I’m closer to the middle. It’s a good deal for the Jets, not a great one. But their side is the side I’d rather be on.
The Williams trade, as I detailed above, is a clear and enormous win for the Jets. Williams is older than Gardner and plays a more fungible position — you can get quality DTs in the later rounds of the draft far more easily than you can get quality CBs — yet the Jets still produced a second-round pick and a future first. For general manager Darren Mougey, this deal is the masterstroke that might launch a successful rebuild in New York.
Rich Eisen approves of Jets’ return in Sauce Gardner trade
The team is worse than it was 24 hours ago — a lot worse. It’s understandable and defensible that it happened, but trading good players away is always risky. And it always hurts.
Since Week 6 — when Gilman entered the starting lineup — the Ravens are second in points allowed per game, seventh in EPA per play and ninth in success rate. Gilman has been solid. He forced a fumble and recovered another against the Dolphins last Thursday, but his greatest value has been in the unleashing of Kyle Hamilton.
Baltimore has been thin along the defensive line all season, and Jones will provide snaps on both the edge and in the interior. But even if that’s the ceiling on the acquisition, and all he provides is depth, the Ravens are still deadline winners for the impact of the Gilman trade.
Of all the teams that stood pat at the deadline (notables such as Tampa Bay, Denver and Pittsburgh), the Patriots are the team that surprised and disappointed me the most. The Colts’ decision to get aggressive acquiring a blue-chip player is defensible, but controversial. If the Patriots, who look like a legitimate AFC contender with an MVP contender quarterback playing on a rookie contract, took a similar leap, it would be universally cheered.
