Time was, the NFL trade deadline was something of a joke. I covered baseball for the first 14 years of my sportswriting career, and when I switched to NFL coverage in 2009 I was more than a little stunned by the contrast. Baseball's trade deadline was always a dizzying experience, with teams dealing prospects for (usually expensive) veterans they thought could help put them over the top in that particular season. The NFL deadline was a big nothing. Teams didn't make trades.
But now they do, and they aren't just small ones. Amari Cooper, Demaryius Thomas, Damon Harrison, Golden Tate and Dante Fowler Jr. were among the players traded last October. And in case you thought that was just a blip or an anomaly, Jalen Ramsey and Marcus Peters have already been traded this month, with the Oct. 29 deadline still more than a week away.
Who's the biggest name that could move before this year's deadline? The answer seems to be Denver Broncos edge rusher Von Miller, who has 2.5 sacks in six games.
No other potential trade target has a Super Bowl MVP award (unless you think Eli Manning is getting traded, which I don't). Miller is only 30 years old, and he's already in the top 30 in league history in sacks (100.5). His 14.5 sacks in 2018 represented the second-highest single-season total of his career. He had at least 10 sacks in seven of his first eight years in the league. This is his ninth. He's a likely Hall of Famer in the prime of his career playing a position so valuable that players who play it almost never become available. If the Broncos decided to trade Miller, he'd be a hotter-than-the-sun trade target.
After calling around and surveying agents and league executives on the topic, here's what we came up with regarding this idea:
