Trades hit fast and furious at the NFL trade deadline, driven by contenders losing daylight and the overwhelming taste of disappointment in New York.
Big names and bigger contracts were guided to iighted exits by the Jets, ushered to teams with pressing needs and aspiring playoff hopes.
General manager and holder of the Cowboys’ checkbook Jerry Jones put his signature on a pair of swaps designed to make Dallas’ defense better. At 3-5-1, the unit can’t get any worse — well, it technically can but rates next-to-last ahead of only the Cincinnati Bengals in total defense and points allowed.
As the dust settles on an active deadline, we dole out some honorary recognition. There will be no actual trophies handed out.
–Back to the Future Award: New York Jets
Credit the Jets for noticing the fuel gauge went to “E” long before Week 9, the most productive days of the season for coach Aaron Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey by a landslide.
All told, the Jets scored three first-round picks, a second-rounder, former first-round pick Mazi Smith and wide receiver Adonai Mitchell.
Applaud the hard reset. Applaud the plan. Brace yourself for the execution when we begin measuring progress of the impending rebuild.
Our doubt sprouts from Mougey’s indecision about the identity of his defense and the linchpins tasked with anchoring the group.
Sauce Gardner was the No. 4 pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. He’s gone barely three months after signing a four-year, $120.4 million contract extension.
Quinnen Williams went third overall in 2019 and was a first-team All-Pro in 2022. He still has two years on his contract after this season and is universally viewed as one of the top talents at the position.
Maybe seven losses in eight weeks brought frustration to a boiling point and there was a mandate from owner Woody Johnson to clear the decks.
Mougey steps into the NY pressure cooker as the most important figure in the Jets’ rebuild with four draft picks in the first two rounds in 2026 and a pair of first-rounders in 2027.
The Jets would have the No. 3 pick in the 2026 draft based on today’s standings (Tennessee and New Orleans have eight losses).
All of a sudden, there are few building blocks on the roster — WR Garrett Wilson stands out — but newfound capital to expedite a construction project more massive than it was yesterday. A silver lining in the erasure of blue-chip, foundation players is the approximately $117 million in cap space available in 2026 when the Jets go from seller to shopper.
–Circus, Circus Award: Dallas Cowboys
Another day, another dose of drama under the big top at Jerry World.
For a franchise in 11th place in the conference, the Cowboys made quite a racket on Tuesday with trades for linebacker Logan Wilson (Bengals) and Pro Bowl defensive tackle Quinnen Williams (Jets).
No doubt Williams is a difference-maker. In his physical prime and long a target of Jerry Jones’ appreciation, acquiring Williams improves the Cowboys instantly.
What we won’t know for the immediate future is whether Jones’ rage bait roulette move in August was erased or underscored by Tuesday’s deal.
Micah Parsons wanted to stay. He’s three years younger than Williams and plays a more premium position. Effort and production were never questions when No. 11 suited up for the Cowboys, and that was every single time he was physically capable.
Parsons was traded to the Packers in a deal we still doubt as coherent from a franchise-building perspective.
But if we follow the bouncing ball, will Jones’ stack of assets equate to a long trade win? He surely believes it will.
At present, he’s flexing a tremendous defensive line tandem — Kenny Clark from the Packers and Williams — and still has one of the two first-round draft picks (2026) netted from Green Bay.
Does any or all of the sum push the Cowboys closer to a Super Bowl? Jury is out. They’ve lost head-to-head to the Bears and Panthers, two of the three teams between the Cowboys and the seventh playoff spot, and will play the Vikings (4-4) and Lions (5-3) before the NFC postseason picture develops.
Williams should be raring to go by the time he hits the field in Las Vegas on Nov. 17. He went from the bye week Jets to Dallas, where the Week 10 bye has only begun.
–Giddy Up Award
Colts general manager Chris Ballard spent the better part of his tenure in Indianapolis on the wrong end of the horseshoe.
Let’s review the timeline of trauma inflicted under Ballard’s watch.
In 2018, Ballard hired a head coach that left him at the altar. Didn’t show up. Ghosted before ghosting was a thing. Josh McDaniels did not get a holiday greeting from the Ballards. That Jan. 28 verbal agreement with McDaniels came after he flamed out with an 11-17 record with the Broncos and was built around the idea that the franchise would have a healthy Andrew Luck at quarterback plus the No. 3 overall pick in the 2018 draft.
When McDaniels decided to stay and presumably be coach-in-waiting for Bill Belichick with the Patriots (he wasn’t), Ballard went with Frank Reich.
And after a 1-5 start, Luck went on a tear with 30 TD passes and nine wins in 10 games. The Colts won a playoff game — at Houston, 21-7 — then lost to the Chiefs (31-13) about 11 months and two weeks after Ballard hired McDaniels.
And Luck ran out. To retirement. Never to play in the NFL again.
By 2022 late owner Jim Irsay had seen enough, punting Reich to hire former glory days center Jeff Saturday — who snapped the ball to Peyton Manning — out of the ESPN NFL broadcasting studio as interim head coach. He went 1-7, losing seven in a row to end the season.
For some reason, Irsay kept Ballard and they collectively selected Shane Steichen as head coach in 2023. Again armed with a top-five draft pick and determined to find a QB, the trio pushed their chips to the center of the table and bet it all on freaky Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson with the fourth overall selection in the ’23 draft.
Richardson wasn’t the answer.
First-round picks have generally been a lost cause for the Colts since that No. 3 pick in ’18 was used on road-grading guard Quenton Nelson. That’s enough of a failure to get the plugged pulled on most GMs.
Back at a crossroads in March 2025, Ballard … somehow wasn’t fired.
He set aside his gratitude journal long enough to commit to adding “competition” for Richardson. The one-year, $14 million pact with Daniel Jones panned as a marginal threat to Richardson proved pure gold. He’s piloting the No. 1 offense in the NFL, reinvented as Danny Dimes with an All-Pro sidekick in running back Jonathan Taylor.
Another signing in free agency in March, Charvarius Ward looked the part of No. 1 cornerback before a concussion sent him to injured reserve. He’s still expected to return. Ward, 29, signed a three-year deal with Indianapolis.
When he returns, he’ll be a co-No. 1 in the secondary with Sauce Gardner, acquired for two first-round picks from the Jets on Tuesday.
Gardner was the No. 3 pick in the 2022 draft and Defensive Rookie of the Year. He fills a need as a playmaker, and Ballard has finally — as it appears today — turned luck in his favor with the need at quarterback erased.
With the team packing for Germany and a Week 10 game in Berlin, the Colts (7-2) are the No. 1 seed in the AFC, control their destiny in the division and beyond and Ballard has time to tap the brakes to refill the bandwagon for Indy’s first playoff appearance since 2020.
–Jeff Reynolds, Field Level Media
