The NFL trade deadline is Tuesday, Nov. 10 at 4 p.m. ET, and the rumor cycle has already settled on its favorites: Jonathan Taylor, Brian Thomas Jr., DeForest Buckner, Maxx Crosby.
The five players below are not on that list. Each one is a starter his team has built around, the kind of player who only moves if a general manager decides an offer is too good to refuse. That is what makes the call surprising, and why any return would have to start with premium draft capital.
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5. Zack Baun, LB, Philadelphia Eagles
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Baun is an All-Pro linebacker who turns 30 in December, and Philadelphia is 2-5 without Jalen Hurts, who is out for the season after being diagnosed with blood clots. The Eagles have already traded center Cam Jurgens to Baltimore, and first-round pick Jihaad Campbell now leads the team in tackles. That is the shape of a handoff. Baun would bring a Day 2 pick rather than a first, but a forward-looking general manager like Howie Roseman has made that kind of call before.
4. Saquon Barkley, RB, Philadelphia Eagles
Barkley is one of the faces of the franchise, which is what makes this a surprise. He turns 30 in February, has missed two games with a hamstring injury, did not finish Monday’s loss to Dallas because of a back injury, and carries a $26 million cap charge in 2027. Philadelphia is 2-5, its offense is among the league’s worst, and its line lost Lane Johnson to retirement and Jurgens to a trade. A Day 2 pick would not fix that. Moving the player who ran for 2,005 yards in 2024 would still be the loudest move of the deadline.
3. Jeffery Simmons, DT, Tennessee Titans
Tennessee is 1-6 in Robert Saleh’s first season, and the buyers-and-sellers breakdown published by NFL.com and The Athletic named the Titans as a team that should be selling. Simmons complicates the math. He is their best player, and NFL.com noted he signed a three-year extension in June, so a trade would leave a hefty dead-money charge in 2027. That combination is what would make a deal stunning, and why the return would have to be a rebuild-level haul: a first-round pick plus additional capital for a defensive tackle who can collapse a pocket. Tennessee has not shopped him. A contender that wants him will have to pay for the inconvenience.
2. Will Anderson Jr., EDGE, Houston Texans
Houston is 2-5 and 0-4 at home, and the defense that was supposed to carry the season is the problem: 24.3 points and 342 yards allowed per game, and 420 yards, including 188 on the ground, in Sunday’s overtime loss to the Giants. General manager Nick Caserio called his team “one of the worst tackling teams in the league.” Stroud is not the issue. He is fourth in the NFL with 1,877 passing yards and has thrown 11 touchdowns to one interception, with no extension signed. Caserio said the Texans are “always open” and will listen before Nov. 10.
Anderson is the one asset that could fund a reset. He leads the NFL with 7½ sacks and signed an extension with $134 million guaranteed, so Houston would absorb a heavy dead-money charge and would need a package built on multiple first-round picks. The Texans have already sent a 2027 second-round selection to Arizona for Marvin Harrison Jr. “You almost have to be perfect. There’s no room for error in this defense,” Anderson said after Sunday’s loss. A team with holes on the line and in the secondary may decide the picks are worth more than the perfect edge rusher.
1. Garrett Wilson, WR, New York Jets
The Jets are 2-5, they traded Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams at last year’s deadline, and Wilson is the best player left from that core. The Athletic’s Zack Rosenblatt reported the Jets “currently have no intention of trading him.”
Then there is the quarterback picture. Behind Geno Smith sit Bailey Zappe, Brady Cook and rookie fourth-round pick Cade Klubnik, which is not a queue of long-term answers, and the roster around Wilson is thin. That is the argument for stockpiling picks. After Sunday’s 28-25 loss to Miami, in which Wilson had two catches for 26 yards and was not targeted in the first half, Connor Hughes of SNY wrote on X: “This has been boiling. Not a fake storyline.”
Wilson said he was not shouting at Smith and called the exchange collaborative; Smith said the same. Even so, a 26-year-old receiver signed through 2030 is the sort of asset that returns a first-round pick and more. It would also leave more than $24 million in dead money for 2027.
The NFL trade deadline rarely delivers the blockbuster everyone expects. Any of these five would qualify.
Edited by Santosh Kumar
