The Newfound Relevance of the NFL Trade Deadline...
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by Ssj3alucard
As send on 3rdstringsafety.blogspot.com
Football is not a game in which one player can make a big enough impact to change a team’s fortune like they can in baseball. It’s a team game where chemistry often trumps talent. That’s why the NFL trade deadline is typically boring. General Managers and coaches are afraid that adding another variable to the mix might destroy the chemistry that it took five weeks to create.
However, in each of the last two years, blockbuster deals have been made as the clock wound down on week six. In both cases, these trades immediately helped both teams and might just create a new atmosphere around sports most boring deadline.
Last year, the Indianapolis Colts run defense couldn’t stop anyone. Teams were routinely ripping through the defensive line and gaining huge chinks of yardage. The Colts were very small on defense and susceptible to the power running game. Peyton Manning was being forced to score in bunches for his team to keep winning. While it was working in the regular season, many doubted the ability of Indianapolis Colts to win in the playoffs.
At the deadline, there was seemingly not much to be had. However, the Colts pulled off a huge deal to improve their team. They traded their second round pick in 2007 to the Buccaneers for defensive tackle Anthony McFarland.
It made sense for everyone involved. The Colts needed a big body to clog up the middle of the defense. The six-foot, 300 pound McFarland fit the bill perfectly. The Buccaneers were struggling again, barely surviving injuries to their top quarterback, Chris Simms, and on their way to a 4-12 record. What did they need with a veteran defensive tackle? They needed to restock their team with young talent. To do that, you need draft picks. The Bucs would turn the 64th overall pick, which they received in the trade, into promising young safety Sabby Piscatelli.
This year, it appeared that the trade deadline would come and go with few people caring once again. Reporters were working the phones for days before the deadline and the biggest story that they could come up with was lifetime backup Michael Bennett being traded to the injury depleted Bucs for a late round pick. Hardly anything exciting.
Until San Diego Chargers GM A.J. Smith saved this year’s deadline from obscurity when he sent a second round pick to Miami for enigmatic wide receiver Chris Chambers.
The anatomy of this deal is eerily similar to last year’s Bucs-Colts trade. The Chargers are a playoff quality team who, despite struggling early, has the ability to take their division. They featured the league’s best running back in LaDanian Tomlinson, its best tight end in Antonio Gates, and a good defense. However, they have never had a deep threat at wide receiver to stretch the field and allow Gates to effectively work the middle. Chambers can provide that as a proven veteran presence. He has been maddeningly inconsistent in his career, but the Bolts hope that the change of scenery and a chance to win, something he wouldn’t have had for a while in Miami, will light a fire under him.
Speaking of the Dolphins, they had nothing to lose by trading Chambers. At 0-6, everyone knows that this team is not going anywhere in ’07. Moreover, they have a ton of young talent at wide receiver in Derek Hagan and Ted Ginn Jr. The exit of their top threat will allow those two to gain more experience so they can become weapons sooner rather than later. Package that with a second round pick, which they can use to land an impact defender in this year’s draft, and this is sweet deal for them as well.
Maybe NFL GMs are opening up to the idea of adding talent to their teams at the trade deadline. Maybe it’s more losing teams looking to stockpile draft picks, than winning teams needing one last piece to complete the puzzle. Together, it could mean that sports fans will be checking their ESPN.com incessantly in the second week of October as well as on July 31.
