This past week, we added 34 new names to our 2025 Midseason NFL Trade Block, bringing the total to 73 players who have either been reported to be available or can be assumed via educated guessing.
The next step is to try and piece those together into some potential deals. The league is humming with trade buzz three weeks out from the deadline. It’s flatter at the top than normal, which means there are more teams considering potential moves to bring in reinforcements. There is also the usual collection of bottom-feeders looking to the future and willing to sell off parts. Broadly speaking, it also feels like this generation of general managers is more willing to get creative with trades, as we’ve seen multiple starter-for-starter deals since the season began.
Here’s a look at six potential deals that are theoretically possible in the next few weeks before the trade deadline:
Eagles trade LB Nakobe Dean for Titans OLB Dre’Mont Jones
The Eagles have some needs to shore up on defense at cornerback and edge rusher as they look to defend their Super Bowl title. General manager Howie Roseman is one of the more aggressive and creative front office bosses in the league, so I could see him getting creative to address those needs ahead of the trade deadline. Pass rushers don’t come cheap and the Eagles need to find a balance between fortifying the roster and keeping enough future picks to reload with cheap contributors.
Jones makes a ton of sense as a potential target. He played for Eagles DC Vic Fangio for three years in Denver and has since transitioned from a hand-in-the-ground defensive lineman to an edge rusher. At 6-3 and 281 pounds (listed), he has size that the Eagles lack on the edge now that Za’Darius Smith retired. His salary for this season is just $2.5 million, so he’d fit into the budget Philadelphia has for this season. As a player on an expiring contract, he’s also not someone the Titans would hang on to too dearly.
As far as the other half of the deal, Dean is an under-the-radar chip for the Eagles to use in lieu of sending out draft capital before the deadline. He stepped into the starting lineup last year and was a big piece of Philadelphia’s success on defense. Dean finished the season with 128 total tackles, nine tackles for loss, three sacks, a force fumble, an interception and four pass deflections. Pro Football Focus graded him as the 26th-best linebacker in the league.
Unfortunately, he tore his patellar tendon in the playoffs, which is a major injury with a grueling rehab. Then the Eagles not only re-signed All-Pro LB Zack Baun but used a first-round pick on LB Jihaad Campbell. Those two are playing extremely well and there’s just not a path for Dean to get on the field at the moment, even though he was activated off injured reserve and is healthy enough to play. Philadelphia has the luxury of a starting linebacker on the bench for now, but given Dean is in the final year of his rookie contract and the team has already allocated substantial resources to the position, it’s a near-certainty he’s playing elsewhere in 2026.
The Eagles could let him walk and try to collect a compensatory pick like they’ve done with many linebackers in the past. But with steady backups on the roster like Jeremiah Trotter Jr. and fifth-rounder Smael Mondon, the Eagles do have some flexibility to trade Dean now instead and lock in that compensation rather than letting things play out. To get a comp pick, Dean has to sign a solid contract with another team and the Eagles have to lose more free agents than they gain in order for that deal to count in the formula. That’s likely how things will play out but there are variables in the process that mean it’s not a sure thing.
For the Titans, there are a few reasons they could be interested in Dean. Linebacker has been a big need and the Titans have taken a few stabs at filling it with mixed results. Veteran Cody Barton is a solid player but none of the young draft picks alongside him have stepped up as a complement. Acquiring Dean in place of Jones would give them a half-season preview of what Dean’s about, including his play on the field and his fit in the locker room, at the cost of a veteran who likely isn’t a long-term fit.
Titans DC Dennard Wilson was on the Eagles’ staff in 2022 when Dean was drafted, so Tennessee should have a sense of Dean as a player, even if it’s not clear whether Wilson will be retained under a new head coach next year. What might be more relevant is what first-year GM Mike Borgonzi and team president Chad Brinker said this offseason about trying to get as many top-100 picks as possible to rebuild a Titans roster that’s scarce on talent.
“I would love to have 30 picks over the next three years and 12 of those picks come from the top 100,” Brinker said via ESPN.
The Titans probably can’t trade Jones for more than a fifth-round pick, but in Dean they’re getting a former third-round pick who’s still just 24 years old and a potential long-term piece. If Brinker and Borgonzi are serious about adding top-100 picks, this would be a creative way to do that. If Dean plays well, they have exclusive negotiating rights until March to try and get a contract done with their abundance of 2026 salary cap space. If Dean walks, he’ll count in the comp pick formula just like Jones would have.
Jets trade CB Michael Carter II to the Eagles for a late-round swap
In one of the trades that’s happened so far this season, the Titans surprisingly moved on from starting CB Jarvis Brownlee, sending him to the Jets for just a late-round pick swap. It’s a potential coup for the Jets, who can move Brownlee back to his natural role as a slot corner and get a starter on a rookie deal for two and a half years. The other side of that deal, however, is Carter, formerly the incumbent nickel corner for the Jets.
He was one of former GM Joe Douglas’ draft finds, arriving in the fifth round in 2022 and immediately locking up the starting slot job. He played around 70 percent of the snaps his first three seasons and played well, leading to a lucrative three-year, $30.75 million deal before the 2024 season that made him one of the league’s highest-paid slot corners. But injuries caused Carter’s play to fall off a cliff last year, and in a new system under HC Aaron Glenn and DC Steve Wilks in 2025, he’s been even worse. PFF has him graded as the No. 106 corner out of 108 players with enough snaps to qualify. For comparison, in his breakout 2023 season, Carter was graded 12th out of 127.
The Jets have an out in Carter’s contract next year with just $1.384 million of his $9.7 million base salary guaranteed. It feels like they’re probably not waiting that long, however, and would be willing to deal Carter for a song to an interested team before the trade deadline.
The obvious match for Carter is with former coaches like 49ers DC Robert Saleh and Falcons DC Jeff Ulbrich, putting him back in systems he excelled. However, neither team is really hard up for help at nickel. The same is true for the Giants and Titans who employ some of Carter’s former position coaches. One potential fit, though, is the Eagles, where Douglas landed as a senior personnel executive after being fired last year by the Jets. The Eagles have a great slot corner in Cooper DeJean, but the second outside corner spot has been a liability all season. If the Eagles think Carter can be a fit in their system and recapture his former success, adding him could allow them to move DeJean outside and improve the group as a whole.
Philadelphia will be cautious not to spend too much money or draft capital with multiple needs ahead of the trade deadline but Carter is affordable with just a minimum base salary this year. Even though he has the equivalent of the minimum guaranteed next year, if the Eagles cut him that would be subject to offsets if he signed with another team. The Eagles also have several sixth-round picks in this upcoming draft to work with in a swap with the Jets, even after trading one to the Jaguars for RB Tank Bigsby.
Ravens trade 2027 6th to Browns for DT Shelby Harris, 2027 7th
Baltimore has been throwing whatever it can at the wall to try and get something to stick and improve the horrendous defensive output that has helped sink the team to 1-5 to start the season. They executed a rare starter-for-starter trade, sending OLB Odafe Oweh to the Chargers for S Alohi Gilman, and also rolled the dice on S C.J. Gardner-Johnson before he requested his release. With Gilman’s arrival, they moved S Kyle Hamilton to nickel corner against the Rams, and overall it resulted in a season-low 17 points allowed.
More help is needed, even though the Ravens will be getting a couple of players back healthy after the bye this week. The front seven is a spot Baltimore could target. They lost two of their three starting defensive linemen in Nnamdi Madubuike and Broderick Washington, the former for the whole year. The Browns don’t seem to be opposed to trading within the division, and Harris is a player who would make some sense as a target.
The 11-year-veteran wouldn’t be able to completely replace a player like Madubuike, but he’d augment Baltimore’s rotation and give them a steadier presence on the interior of the defensive line. Harris is a wily veteran with a knack for blocking kicks and knocking down passes at the line. He’d give the Ravens a little more interior pass rush juice than what they have currently. He’d also be affordable as the Ravens have to be mindful of future commitments and not sink too much cash or draft capital into trying to turn this season around.
Ravens trade RB Keaton Mitchell to Patriots for OLB Anfernee Jennings
Trading Oweh opened up some cap flexibility for the Ravens to make multiple moves, and also created a need at edge rusher that was exacerbated when starting OLB Tavius Robinson went down with a broken foot this past week. Jennings is a similar type of player to Robinson. Both are blue-collar, dirty work types who are effective against the run and win with effort and strength more than dynamic athleticism when it comes to rushing the passer. Jennings isn’t as big but he’s still solid against the run and would be a much better fit in Baltimore’s system than New England’s, which is why the Patriots have been dangling him for months.
Mitchell is one of the extra parts the Ravens might have that could be appealing to other teams as they search for upgrades on defense. The former undrafted free agent out of East Carolina looked like a bolt of lightning in his rookie year, averaging over eight yards per carry. Unfortunately, a severe knee injury derailed that season and his entire second season. He didn’t look quite like himself until this past preseason.
Even so, the Ravens haven’t been able to find a role for him. They like Derrick Henry and Justice Hill more as running backs, and Mitchell has been working behind Hill, RB Rasheen Ali and WR Tylan Wallace as kickoff returners. He wasn’t even active for the first four games of the season. With so many mouths to feed on offense and Mitchell unlikely to be tendered as a restricted free agent this offseason, it’s fair to think he might be extraneous.
The Patriots have come up as a team looking to potentially add at running back. The trio of Rhamondre Stevenson, second-rounder TreVeyon Henderson and Antonio Gibson have struggled so far this season, and Gibson tore his ACL in recent weeks. Mitchell could replace him as the No. 3 back and kick returner, potentially bringing another explosive element to the Patriots’ offense. It’s a potential win-win swap for these two teams, and they’re not risking much by shedding players who don’t have big roles.
49ers trade 2026 6th to Titans for DE Arden Key
It’s openly known that the 49ers would love to add to their pass rush to try and make up for the loss of DE Nick Bosa to a torn ACL. This was supposed to be a transition year for the 49ers, but at 4-2 with a 3-0 record in the NFC West, San Francisco is in a really good spot to make the postseason. And from there, anything can happen.
Still, the team doesn’t want to get too far over its skis, especially with how hard the injury bug has hit the 49ers. Some players should be back but others like Bosa and LB Fred Warner are done for the year. Rather than chase their losses, the 49ers want to take a balanced approach to the trade deadline that fills holes on this team without compromising their ability to rebuild into a sustainable contender.
Someone like Key would fit the bill. He’s on an expiring contract and was signed by the previous regime, which makes him fairly expendable for the Titans now that they’ve fired HC Brian Callahan. He also had his big break and one of the best years of his career back in 2021 with the 49ers, and should still be fairly familiar with the system. Key isn’t an every-down player but he would give the 49ers more punch up front to go with DE Bryce Huff as first-round DE Mykel Williams continues to round out his game.
Cardinals trade 2026 6th to Browns for RB Jerome Ford, 2026 7th
A promising start to the season for the Cardinals feels like a long time ago, as Arizona has skidded to four straight losses following a 2-0 start. The injuries are piling up, and while every team has to deal with injuries to some degree, the Cardinals keep losing players who are pivotal to how they want to play football, especially on offense. Starting RB James Conner, the heart and soul of the offense, is out for the season, and the team lost his backup Trey Benson shortly after. They’ve lost TEs Tip Reiman and Travis Vokolek in back-to-back weeks, hurting their ability to be a run-first, multi-tight end team.
The need at running back is a little easier to fill than the one at tight end. Cardinals OC Drew Petzing was in Cleveland when the Browns drafted Ford and runs a similar system to what the Browns have been operating the last few years. Ford isn’t nearly as good as Conner, but he would be a stabilizing veteran presence who could help ensure the Cardinals can still lean on the ground game. At 5-10 and 210 pounds, he’s big enough to take a sizable workload and is a well-rounded player who can contribute in the passing game as well. Perhaps just as importantly, he should be cheap given Cleveland’s youth movement on offense and Ford’s status in a contract year.
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