2025 NFL Trade Deadline Shocker: Which Underdog Teams Just Changed the Game Forever?
Well, if you thought the 2025 NFL trade deadline would be a snooze fest, think again. It turned out to be a whirlwind that shook up the league more than a last-second hail mary. The Jets made waves selling off key defensive pieces, while the Cowboys, Eagles, and Colts dived into the buyer’s pool, each looking to tilt the playoff scales in their favor. But here’s the kicker — no quarterbacks changed uniforms, yet the shuffle of defensive stalwarts and skill players promises to reverberate through the rest of the season. Makes you wonder: can these moves really flip a team’s fortunes, or is it all just noise before the playoffs? Dive in with me to see which squads came out on top, which took a hit, and how these strategic gambles might just rewrite the NFL narrative for 2025. LEARN MORE.
The NFL trade deadline was livelier than expected. Here are the teams that made the most headlines, and how much better (or worse) they got.
The dust has finally settled for the 2025 trade deadline, and it was a doozy.
There were eight trades on Tuesday and 15 total in the week leading up to the Nov. 4 deadline. While no quarterbacks were traded, multiple defensive starters and skill position players were dealt in trades that will have ripple effects across the NFL.
The New York Jets made the biggest wave as sellers on deadline day after moving two of their biggest defensive stars in cornerback Sauce Gardner and defensive tackle Quinnen Williams. This came after they traded away starting cornerback Michael Carter II a few days earlier. While they picked up the most draft capital at the deadline, the teams they traded with bolstered their defenses ahead of the second half of the season.
The Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles and Indianapolis Colts, the three teams that acquired players from the Jets, were the biggest buyers. While the Cowboys aren’t a real contender this year, the Eagles and Colts certainly are. Both Philadelphia and Indianapolis have at least an 86% chance to make the playoffs and are in the top eight of our playoff prediction model. Dallas has an 11.3% chance of making the playoffs.
The Baltimore Ravens, meanwhile, traded for one player and traded away another on defense. The Ravens are 3-5 but have won their past two games and are inching back into playoff contention.
Let’s break down how these moves affected the respective teams.
Dallas Cowboys
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wasn’t kidding when he said his team had a few trades in the works. Dallas acquired two players on Tuesday in Williams from the Jets and linebacker Logan Wilson from the Bengals.
The moves were significant. Dallas jumped from 31st to 19th in the NFL against the run in our projections.
Williams is an incredible player to pair with Kenny Clark, the player Dallas acquired in the Micah Parsons trade. Both rank in the top 30 in pressure rate, and Williams ranks seventh in run disruption rate among defensive tackles with at least 50 snaps against the run.
Wilson isn’t a superstar, but he gives the Cowboys another solid middle linebacker.
His tackle rate, run disruption rate, pressure rate and burn rate allowed are around the same as the rest of the Cowboys linebackers. Wilson has been productive in his career, too, with four consecutive 100-tackle seasons and nine interceptions from 2021 to 2023.
The Cowboys have had one of the worst defenses in the NFL this year. Williams and Wilson don’t fix things entirely, but they’ll surely help.
Philadelphia Eagles
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman was a big buyer before and at the deadline. Over the past week, Philadelphia acquired cornerback Carter II from the Jets, cornerback Jaire Alexander from the Baltimore Ravens and edge rusher Jaelan Phillips from the Miami Dolphins.
These moves weren’t home run swings, but they added clear depth at important positions.
Carter II and Alexander played sparingly this season, with just 58 and 34 pass coverage snaps played, respectively, due to various injuries. But when they’re fully healthy, they’re elite. Since 2021, Carter II has allowed a 39.0% burn rate and a 65.0% open rate, while Alexander has allowed a 45.8% run rate and a 60.8% open rate. Both are expected to play behind the Eagles’ starters, Cooper DeJean in the slot and Quinyon Mitchell.
Phillips, meanwhile, has looked great so far in 2025 and is a pass-rush upgrade in Philadelphia. He’ll be reunited with Vic Fangio, who was the Dolphins’ defensive coordinator in 2023. Phillips had 6.5 sacks under Fangio in eight games before he suffered a season-ending Achilles injury. This season, Phillips already has three sacks and his 27.4% pressure rate ranks 11th among all edge rushers so far.
The Eagles made moves to bolster the defense as they make a push to defend their Super Bowl title. All three moves could be crucial come January.
Indianapolis Colts
The Colts pulled off the most shocking trade of the deadline with their acquisition of Gardner. The move gives Indianapolis a clear No. 1 cornerback who is only 25 years old and isn’t a free agent until 2031.
Gardner is a true lockdown cornerback. While Gardner’s burn rate allowed ranks in the middle of the pack, his 48.0% open rate allowed ranks third in the league among cornerbacks. He doesn’t get many interceptions (just three over his career), but the Colts need someone who can take a team’s best offensive player out of the game.
Indianapolis had what looked like a good group of cornerbacks to start the year with Charvarius Ward, Kenny Moore and Camryn Bynum, but the secondary has looked lost with Ward on injured reserve after suffering a concussion. The Colts’ defense allowed a 39.9% pass success rate in games with Ward and a 44.6% success rate without him. Ward could return as soon as Week 12 following the Colts’ bye, but the addition of Gardner mitigates that extended loss.
For the Colts to make a run in the AFC, they’ll need a top-flight secondary, especially with matchups against Nico Collins, Rashee Rice and Jaxon Smith-Njigba still to come this season. Gardner gives them the star they need to combat the best weapons in the AFC.
New York Jets
We can’t talk about the trade deadline without diving into how it affects the Jets, both now and in the years to come. First-year general manager Darren Mougey acquired three first-round picks, one second-round pick and one seventh-round pick as well as wide receivers AD Mitchell and John Metchie III and defensive tackle Mazi Smith in his three significant deals.
As you can imagine, the results left the Jets’ defense pretty barren. New York now has zero defenders with an ELO rating above 80 and will be looking at sizable role changes for backups. The Jets’ defensive team rating dropped eight spots from 22nd to 30th.
Offensively, the Jets have a collection of pass-catchers behind Garrett Wilson who aren’t even close to solid. Until Wilson returns from his knee injury, the Jets’ top receivers are fourth-round rookie Arian Smith, Tyler Johnson, Allen Lazard and the two newcomers in Mitchell and Metchie III. Smith and Mitchell are the deep threats, while Johnson, Lazard and Metchie will see action in the middle of the field for whoever the team’s starting quarterback will be throughout the rest of the season.
These moves weren’t designed for 2025, though. While Mitchell and Metchie III are still young and could help the team in the future, Mougey and company are looking toward the upcoming drafts while they see what they have in the rest of the roster.
Baltimore Ravens
The Ravens were buyers and sellers this season. Baltimore acquired edge rusher Dre’Mont Jones from the Tennessee Titans but shipped out Alexander, who never seemed like a true fit on the team.
While the loss of Alexander didn’t affect the Ravens too much, Jones did boost Baltimore’s defensive team rating by 0.64 points, the third-biggest difference behind the Colts and Cowboys among teams that made trades. The seven-year veteran opened the year with 4.5 sacks in his first four games but hasn’t done much since.
Jones gives the Ravens defense another quality edge rusher after the disappointing start for second-rounder Mike Green. Jones joins Kyle Van Noy as the only Baltimore edge rushers who’ve played at least 100 defensive snaps with a pressure rate of at least 19% and a run disruption rate above 12%. Green, meanwhile, has a 10.2% pressure rate and a 9.6% run disruption rate.
The Ravens aren’t out of the playoff hunt yet, and Jones gives them a better option on the edge and a better shot of fortifying what has been a shaky defense.
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The post 2025 NFL Trade Deadline: Which Teams Made the Biggest Impact? appeared first on Opta Analyst.
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