You want your NFL team’s general manager to tinker, and even though we’re done with the biggest part of free agency and the draft, there are still seven months for GMs to do that tinkering. In 2025, 62 players were traded between May and November. There were 40 players in 2024, and there were 38 players in 2023. Now, not all of those trades are super high impact; not every trade is going to be an A.J. Brown-caliber trade… Sometimes it’ll be for a depth guy who plays 30 snaps all season…
But trades mean teams are trying to get better, and after a wonky 2025 season where a bunch of good teams underperformed, we could really use a 2026 season where everyone is trying to rip out each other’s throats. So here are 32 trade targets, one for each team, with no repeat players.
Arizona Cardinals: Jessie Bates, S, Atlanta Falcons
By no means should the Cardinals make any trades. They should wheel out whatever players they have, make it through the season, and hope for the worst. As a matter of fact, I’d argue that they should be trading guys away.
However, you could probably say the same thing about the Colts this time last year, and they went out and had a really good (start to the) season… So anything can happen.
If they do go out and make a trade, it should be at safety. If they wanted to grab a relatively high-end safety, they should try to get Jessie Bates from the Falcons. If they wanted to go after someone who might be better than Andrew Wingard or Dadrion Taylor-Demerson (two names I’ve admittedly never heard of), then they can send a sixth or seventh round pick to Dallas for Malik Hooker. The Cardinals’ defensive backs coach is Cristian Garcia, who was with the Cowboys in 2024, so they’re probably a little familiar with each other.
Atlanta Falcons: Darius Slayton, WR, New York Giants
The Falcons’ wide receiver room is Drake London, Jahan Dotson, and Olamide Zaccheaus. In other words, it’s a very dominant WR1, and then a couple of former Eagles WR3s.
If things are going well for them and they want to upgrade their wide receiver room… or if things are going terribly for them because London gets hurt again, they could use a better WR2.
A good guy to trade for would be Darius Slayton. He’s got one year of guaranteed money left on his deal with the Giants, and he’s been incredibly consistent despite having played with 13 different quarterbacks in his seven-year career. He’s not going to blow your pants off with production, but he’s got good hands, and he’ll make life easier for a team that doesn’t have a starting quarterback.
Baltimore Ravens: Olu Oluwatimi, C, Seattle Seahawks
The Ravens lost Tyler Linderbaum in free agency when he signed a mondo-sized three-year, $81 million deal. Baltimore has a move to replace him, but it doesn’t feel like they’ve done enough. They already had Corey Bullock (2025 UDFA) and signed Danny Pinter (Colts’ backup) in free agency.
Maybe one of those guys will end up playing like a starting-caliber center, but they could definitely put some more bullets in the chamber, and trading for Olu Oluwatimi would be a good start. He’s the Seahawks’ backup center right now, but he did start four games last season when Jalen Sundell was on IR.
Maybe he won’t end up being the guy, but the Ravens need more people than they’ve got right now.
Buffalo Bills: Michael Wilson, WR, Arizona Cardinals
One of two things is true:
- Brandon Beane is utterly incompetent and doesn’t understand the team-building aspect of being a general manager. He thinks that Josh Allen is his team’s offense, and it doesn’t matter who he throws the ball to, because he’s good enough to win.
- At some point, Beane made a deal with Football-Devil. He would be allowed to fail upward and become the general manager and president of football operations in Buffalo. In return, he was only able to get Josh Allen one weapon per offseason.
This year, he traded a second-round pick to the Bears for D.J. Moore.
But maybe, just maybe, it’s the first option, and Beane looks at the way offenses in the NFL operate when they have multiple good wide receivers… He could trade for someone like the Cardinals’ 2023 third-round pick, Michael Wilson.
He’s coming off of the best season in his career by far, so unfortunately, that means that his price would be a little bit higher. But if you’re Buffalo, and you realize that the AFC East isn’t going to be a cake walk anymore, you would pay a relative premium to get a receiver that you know can be productive.
And then if he’s productive for you, you throw an extension his way, and now you’ve got a certified dude on the outside.
Carolina Panthers: Baron Browning, EDGE, Arizona Cardinals
The Panthers made their biggest defensive move of the offseason when they signed Jaelen Phillips to a contract that pays him $30 million per year.
Then, in the draft, the biggest defensive pick they made was when they drafted Lee Hunter in the third round. He’s a mondo-sized nose tackle who’s not going to offer you a whole lot when it comes to getting after the quarterback.
They still need some guys to be able to rotate in as pass rushers, and trading a late-round pick to the Cardinals (who should be selling everything that’s not nailed down) for Baron Browning would be a good move
Browning’s not going to blow your mind with his production or anything like that, but he can come in and get the quarterback uncomfortable if you need him to.
Chicago Bears: Maxx Crosby, EDGE, Las Vegas Raiders
Going into free agency, the Bears needed a real and dominant defensive end, and they didn’t get one. Going into the draft, they still needed a real and dominant defensive end, and they still didn’t get one. Maxx Crosby is still out there.
After the Ravens backed out of the trade with the Raiders, Crosby’s value plummeted into the core of the Earth. Since then, that value has gone the only way it could go: up.
Now, the big “reason” the Ravens said they backed out of the trade was that Crosby didn’t pass his physical. They were probably lying about that, but he did just have knee surgery, so maybe they were telling the truth.
All that means is that Crosby’s value is going to skyrocket when he comes out on the field in Week 1 and gets back to his ol’ psycho-killer self.
I get that teams want to wait to see if that happens, and the Raiders are probably really chill about waiting and getting a better trade package… But the sooner a team trades for Crosby, the less they’re going to have to pay for him.
Cincinnati Bengals: Budda Baker, S, Arizona Cardinals
The Bengals have done a whole lot of good with their defense so far this offseason, but it hasn’t been enough. Two of the three players who missed the most tackles last season were Geno Stone (26 misses) and Jordan Battle (21 misses).
They were the starting safeties in Cincinnati last year. So far, they’ve replaced Geno Stone with Bryan Cook in free agency… But because they traded their first-round pick for Dexter Lawrence, they weren’t able to draft either Caleb Downs or Dylan Thieneman. Then in the second round, they went with Cashius Howell, the edge rusher from Texas A&M, instead of Emmanuel McNiel-Warren…
Those were the three draft prospects who could probably start in Week 1. That means that if the Bengals are going to move on from Battle, they’re going to need to trade, and for what feels like the 100th straight season, the best option is Budda Baker, Arizona’s perennial All-Pro.
Cleveland Browns: Cesar Ruiz, RG, New Orleans Saints
The Browns were in a really weird spot going into the offseason, where they were going to have to replace their entire offensive line. They’ve done a really good job at that so far, but right now, Teven Jenkins is set up to be a starting guard. That’s not what you want.
Cesar Ruiz has been a starter for the Saints for the past six seasons, but his contract is all out of guaranteed money. If they wanted to move him, they definitely could. Especially since they drafted Jeremiah Wright…
Now, they did draft him in the fourth round, so it’ll probably take a minute for him to be comfortable. But if that ever happens, Ruiz could be on the trading block, and he’d be a good piece for the Browns.
Dallas Cowboys: Pete Werner, LB, New Orleans Saints
This offseason, the Cowboys hired Christian Parker to be their new defensive coordinator. He spent the last two seasons in Philadelphia as the defensive backs coach under Vic Fangio, so it’s safe to assume that he’s going to run some type of Fangio scheme.
Even though he’s a DBs guy, it’d be crazy for him not to realize how important the linebacker play was in those two seasons of elite defenses. The problem for him right now is that the Cowboys’ linebackers are bad and there aren’t really any good linebackers who are available… So they’re going to have to do a little bit of bargain hunting.
Pete Werner could be that guy. He’s not great, but he is a starting-caliber linebacker who has played in Brandon Staley’s bastardized version of the Fangio scheme. That’s just about as good as you’re going to get at this point.
Denver Broncos: Oren Burks, LB, Cincinnati Bengals
This really comes down to the Broncos’ plan for Jonah Elliss. He’s been an edge rusher for the past two seasons, but because they released Dre Greenlaw, Sean Payton said that he’s hoping Elliss would slide back to be an inside linebacker.
If that works, then they’re golden. If that doesn’t work, and Elliss stays on the edge, they’ll need to bring some people in for competition at linebacker.
Typically, I would recommend against trading for anyone on the Bengals’ defense, but Oren Burks is the kind of guy who can offer that competition, and potentially some high-quality play if Alex Singleton or Justin Strnad miss some time.
Detroit Lions: Chuba Hubbard, RB, Carolina Panthers
The Lions are in a tremendous spot with their running back situation because Jahmyr Gibbs is totally awesome. However, one of the things that made Gibbs work so well is that David Montgomery was their feral hog of a short-yardage back.
They traded Montgomery to the Texans this offseason and replaced him in free agency with the husk of Isiah Pacheco. That’s not remotely close to a one-for-one replacement.
If they wanted to get greedy and make sure they really crushed everything, they could try to get Chuba Hubbard from Carolina. The problem with that is usable running backs are at a premium right now, and the price for a guy like Hubbard is going to be a little bit higher than it was a month ago.
Green Bay Packers: Walker Little, T, Jacksonville Jaguars
The Packers had a whole lot of roster holes this offseason, and they’ve done a decent job filling them, even though they didn’t have a whole lot of resources. I would imagine that their next priority would be to fix their issues with the offensive line.
They let Rasheed Walker walk in free agency, which means it’s time for Jordan Morgan, their 2024 first-round pick, to take over at starting left tackle. If he doesn’t work out… They’ve got nothing.
If they wanted to get someone to compete with and/or back up Morgan, they could ask the Jaguars about Walker Little’s availability.
The Jags drafted him in the second round of the 2021 draft, but he’s never really clicked as a starter. Last year, Cole Van Lanen (who was drafted by the Packers in 2021) ended up taking his job. If the Jags want to get something for Little before he becomes a free agent after 2026, they should be able to figure something out with Green Bay.
Houston Texans: Bud Dupree, DE, Los Angeles Chargers
The thing about Bud Dupree is that it feels like he’s always on a ruthless defense. He was in Pittsburgh from 2015 to 2020. Then he went to play under Mike Vrabel in Tennessee. Then he went to play in Atlanta in 2023 (this was an outlier). Then he went to Los Angeles to play under Jesse Minter and the Chargers.
That Chargers defense kind of lost its teeth near the end of the season, and then Minter left to take the head coaching job in Baltimore. It just feels like Bud Dupree would be a great fit on Demeco Ryan’s team. He’d be a rotational guy who gets to share time with Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter… those are two guys who would be awesome to share the load with, especially if you’re a 33-year-old edge rusher.
Indianapolis Colts: Jordan Addison, WR, Minnesota Vikings
The Colts are in a very tough spot right now. IF (and that’s a big IF) Daniel Jones is healthy enough to play at the beginning of the season, he’s going to need his receivers to get open early and often.
The problem is that right now, his wide receivers are Alec Pierce, Josh Downs, and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine. That’s not remotely close to the caliber of a receiver room that they’re going to need… and there isn’t really anyone out there who is going to give that wide receiver room a shot of adrenaline.
However, the Vikings did just sign Jauan Jennings. If they wanted to move on from Jordan Addison, who has had a litany of legal issues, they absolutely could. It’s unprecedented for a team to trade a player right after they exercise his fifth-year option, but this is a pretty unique situation that both teams are in.
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