NFL Trade Deadline Passes With Lots of Smoke, but Only One Trade

The NFL Trade Deadline has come and gone. There was plenty of rumors and smoke. Today, it was that Jared Allen was going to the Seahawks, er, Broncos, er, 49ers. None of that happened.

Instead, even though the trade deadline has been moved back to incentivize teams that better know their lot for the season, there was little action.

New England was the only contender who made a (low cost) move to address a need heading into the second half.

Nose tackle Isaac Sopoaga, who just signed with Philadelphia this year, was traded to New England, along with a sixth round pick, for the Patriots’ 2014 fifth round pick. That’s right, the difference between a fifth and sixth rounder. That is a roughly 2% greater chance of getting a pro bowler between those two rounds (7% vs. 5%). Sopoaga will join the group trying to replace the loss of Vince Wilfork for the Patriots.

Other than that, this simply confirms how much of a value the draft picks are under the new salary system. Bad teams have veterans, but they often have prohibitive contracts. Good teams don’t want to take on those contracts while also giving up something of value. The non-contenders always have the compensatory picks to fall back on, and don’t have to take virtually nothing.

So for this day, unlike so many others in the NFL, there was a lot of hype, and no delivery.