Our first look at the NFL trade deadline: Candidates to move, plus teams that could be active

We're only two weeks into the 2025 NFL season and still more than six weeks away from the Nov. 4 trade deadline (4 p.m. ET). But NFL seasons go by very quickly, and each week offers an array of new data points on which teams base their short- and long-term decisions.

The Buccaneers, for example, are 2-0 and four-time defending division champions that have their sights set on the Super Bowl. They also lost two starting offensive linemen to injury on Monday night and are still awaiting the return of another in left tackle Tristan Wirfs. This is a team capable of patching things together, but they might need some help from the outside if they're going to get where they need to go in December and January.

Across Alligator Alley on the east coast of Florida, the Dolphins have had a rough start to the season. They are 0-3 and could conceivably be in rebuild mode if this season doesn't turn around. Even with that deadline more than six weeks away, we can be sure teams are looking at Miami's roster and wondering who might be available.

So with that all in mind, we decided to take a little bit of an early look at what could happen as the season gets closer to the deadline. Who could be on the move? Which teams could be adding new players? Which teams could be moving on from players? And what could happen between now and then to shake up the entire landscape?

Jump to:
Five potential trade targets
Five teams that could add
Five teams that cold subtract
Five wild-card factors

Five potential trade targets to watch

Tyreek Hill, WR, Miami Dolphins

Here's the one everyone has been talking about since the offseason. Hill was openly dissatisfied when the 2024 season ended, and while the team did not move on from him, he and quarterback Tua Tagovailoa talked in training camp about the fact that the relationship between Hill and the team was in need of repair. Everything I've been told backs up the idea that Hill has been doing the work the Dolphins have needed him to do to repair those relationships.

But he's still a 31-year-old receiver with no guaranteed money on his deal beyond this season and a base salary of $10 million that wouldn't be tough for another team to take on. Last season was the first time since 2019 that he didn't crack 1,000 yards, and he was at 959. And he has 15 catches for 198 yards and a touchdown this season.

A complicating factor is that Hill could potentially face league discipline in the form of a suspension if the NFL investigates the recent accusations of domestic violence his ex-wife has made and finds him in violation of the personal conduct policy.

Kirk Cousins, QB, Atlanta Falcons

We haven't heard much about Cousins in a while. But with Michael Penix Jr. entrenched as the Falcons' starter and Cousins playing the good soldier on the bench (while making $27.5 million this season), teams that find themselves in need of a quarterback could absolutely be calling.

The Falcons don't mind keeping Cousins as a backup in case something happens to Penix -- after all, as many as five backup quarterbacks could start this week in place of injured starters, and it's only Week 3. But if someone were to offer enough in return, would pick up some of Cousins' salary and be OK with his fully guaranteed 2026 $10 million roster bonus, you never know. But the Falcons, who are under pressure to win soon, probably would have to find another backup QB they felt good about before moving on from Cousins.

Travis Etienne Jr., RB, Jacksonville Jaguars

He's off to an excellent start with the new coaching staff, which believes he's a great fit for the offense Liam Coen wants to run. Through two weeks, Etienne is second in the NFL in rushing (214 yards). He's also playing on the fifth-year option season of his rookie contract and is not signed beyond 2025.

The Jaguars drafted Bhayshul Tuten in the fourth round of this year's draft and then took passing-down back LeQuint Allen Jr. in the seventh. Those two probably form the future of the team's backfield; Jacksonville already traded Tank Bigsby to the Eagles. If the Jaguars fall out of contention and want to get a longer look at their rookies, Etienne and his $6.143 million salary would probably be pretty easy to move.

Jaelan Phillips, Edge, Miami Dolphins

Another 2021 first-round pick playing out his fifth-year option with no deal beyond 2025, Phillips could be a very interesting target for pass rush-needy teams if the Dolphins fall out of contention and decide they aren't going to keep him long term.

He has had trouble staying healthy, but he's healthy right now, and a prorated portion of his $13.251 million salary wouldn't be too onerous in a league in which everyone's always looking for edge rushers. Phillips had 15.5 sacks over this first two seasons in the NFL before injuries limited him to 12 games over the next two years.

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Why it's 'as bad as it seems' for the Miami Dolphins

Adam Schefter and Will Compton look ahead to the Dolphins' game vs. the Bills on Thursday night and discuss what's going on behind the scenes in Miami.

Romeo Doubs, WR, Green Bay Packers

An interesting one here because the Packers don't seem to be a team that has to worry about falling out of contention. What they might have to worry about is having too many wide receivers.

Right now, with Christian Watson and Jayden Reed out because of injuries, it's not an issue. But when and if those guys get back, it could be tough to find opportunities for everybody, considering they have Doubs, Dontayvion Wicks and first-round rookie Matthew Golden also in the mix. This room is crowded enough that former wide receiver Bo Melton switched to cornerback this offseason just to make the team.

Doubs is a name that came up in trade discussions during the offseason and certainly could again once the Packers are whole and teams come looking for help at the position. Green Bay could stand to recoup some draft capital after the Micah Parsons trade, and Doubs is making a very reasonable $3.406 million on the final year of his contract. He has clipped 600 receiving yards in each of his past two seasons, and he has 96 yards and a touchdown through two games in 2025.

Five teams that could look to add

Kansas City Chiefs

Of all the 0-2 teams, this is the one we can be pretty sure won't be throwing in the towel at any point. That's because none of the other 0-2 teams have played in each of the past three Super Bowls. The Chiefs haven't looked good, but they still have Andy Reid as their coach and Patrick Mahomes as their quarterback, and they tend to be active at the trade deadline. So we can feel pretty confident they'll be looking to add, whether it's at running back, wide receiver or somewhere on the defense.

The Chiefs are the team most often connected with Hill, in part because they have such a need at wide receiver and because he began his career in Kansas City. But if Xavier Worthy can come back healthy and Rashee Rice plays the way they expect him to after his six-game suspension, the Chiefs might be looking for help elsewhere on the roster come early November.

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Why there's so much at stake for Chiefs vs. Giants

Dan Orlovsky and the "Get Up" crew detail the rough start to the Chiefs' season and explain why there's so much on the line in their game against the Giants on Sunday night.

Philadelphia Eagles

It's hard to find a ton of holes on this roster, but a) you never know what needs will arise as the season goes along, and b) Eagles GM Howie Roseman is among the most active traders in the league. The Eagles made several deals during training camp and signed edge rusher Za'Darius Smith after the season began. They are the defending Super Bowl champs, but Roseman is always looking for ways to improve the roster.

At this point, if I had to predict, I'd say the Eagles will be on the lookout for help on the back end of their defense. Opponents have a 68.3 QBR against the Eagles this season, 26th in the NFL. Whatever the need turns out to be, Roseman won't sit on his hands.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

As mentioned earlier, the Bucs already have needs on the offensive line, down Wirfs, Luke Goedeke and Cody Mauch. They also lost defensive tackle Calijah Kancey (torn pec) for the season in Monday night's very costly win.

Tampa Bay has won its division four years in a row and knows it might get a challenge from a hungry Falcons team, as it did last season. And the Buccaneers are also sick of being division champs but not advancing in the playoffs. With Baker Mayfield playing like a top quarterback and an offense that's extremely deep at the skill positions, Bucs GM Jason Licht will surely be on the lookout for anything that can help in the trenches.

San Francisco 49ers

Last season fell apart for the Niners because of injuries, and they're being walloped with them already this season. But they're also 2-0 and one season removed from an overtime loss in the Super Bowl. It might not be as big a splash as they made when they acquired running back Christian McCaffrey from the Panthers in the middle of the 2022 season, but it's easy to imagine San Francisco looking for help at wide receiver or in the secondary as the deadline gets closer.

Indianapolis Colts

Let's wrap this section with our most surprising 2-0 team. No one knows for sure whether this hot start by the Daniel Jones-led offense is sustainable, but if so, the Colts have a real chance to win their division for the first time since 2014. Expect them to hit the accelerator if they're still sitting in first place come late October. Lou Anarumo's defense could use help at any of the three levels; the Colts are giving up 5.3 yards per play, which is league average.

Here's something else: Some wonder if 2023 first-round pick Anthony Richardson Sr. could be of interest to a team looking for a developmental QB, and whether he could be a trade option at this year's deadline if Jones keeps playing well enough to look like the Colts' answer.

Five teams that could look to subtract

Cleveland Browns

Starting the season 0-2 and seemingly already positioning themselves to be a big factor in next year's draft (two first-round picks), the Browns could very easily be dealing away players by early November. Cornerback Greg Newsome II and tight end David Njoku are among the veterans in the final years of their contracts who could be of interest to teams looking for help at the deadline. And a quarterback room that has 40-year-old veteran Joe Flacco and rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders is going to keep being talked about in these types of discussions.

Miami Dolphins

We've kind of been over them already and even listed a couple of players who could potentially be trade options if the Dolphins don't turn their season around. Again, the disclaimer applies that it's only Week 3 and things can absolutely change. But because of the low outside expectations people have had for the Dolphins since the preseason, this is a roster that other teams have been eyeing for a while.

New Orleans Saints

Another team for which outside expectations were fairly low coming into this season, the Saints are off to an 0-2 start in their first season under coach Kellen Moore and might end up looking to retool their roster for the future. Veterans such as running back Alvin Kamara (144 rushing yards this season) and receiver Chris Olave (108 receiving yards) -- each of whom is signed through 2026 -- could be of interest to teams looking for skill position help down the stretch.

I'd include veteran edge rusher Cameron Jordan here too, since he's in the final year of his deal, but it's just about impossible to imagine him finishing his career anywhere but New Orleans at this point.

New York Giants

Even if quarterback Russell Wilson is playing well by midseason, there's a possibility the Giants will decide to switch to first-round pick Jaxson Dart -- either because they think he's ready to take over or because they're losing too much and feel they need to change something to produce a spark. When and if that happens, Wilson could be appealing to a front office looking to acquire a veteran QB for the stretch run. Jameis Winston is also in the Giants' quarterback room, though he might be in their 2026 plans as a veteran backup to Dart.

New York picked up the fifth-year option on edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux, so he's signed through 2026. But given the Giants' depth in the defensive front seven, they could certainly get calls on someone such as Thibodeaux if they're falling out of contention. He has 1.5 sacks to begin the season.

Las Vegas Raiders

Here we have another team under new management that could be using this season to assess who does or doesn't fit into Pete Carroll's program moving forward. If the Raiders fall out of contention in October, it's not hard to imagine them starting to think about moving a player or two for draft capital.

Wide receiver Jakobi Meyers is off to a great start -- he has 165 receiving yards, ninth in the league -- but he did request a trade this offseason because he wasn't able to get the contract extension he wanted from the Raiders. He's a free agent at the end of the season, and as long as he remains without an extension, it's fair to wonder whether he's in the team's plans for 2026 and beyond.

Five wild-card factors to consider

Can Jake Browning keep the Bengals in contention?

Cincinnati is off to a 2-0 start, but starting quarterback Joe Burrow is out at least three months because of a toe injury that requires surgery to repair. The Bengals say they believe Browning can keep them competitive, and they haven't given up hope that Burrow might be able to return before the season ends. If we get to early November and both of those hopes are still alive, then I'd expect the Bengals to stay the course or even look to add help (though the latter would be unlike them).

But if they fall apart under Browning and/or Burrow's recovery timetable is longer than their most optimistic current hopes, then teams probably will start calling about someone such as edge rusher Trey Hendrickson, who isn't signed beyond this season.

Who will be the surprise contenders?

We've already mentioned the Colts as an example of a team that could be adding if their hot start turns into a contending season. Throw the 2-0 Cardinals in the same bucket, as a team whose coaching staff is in its third season and is under at least some degree of pressure to start producing results. If the Seahawks can make the NFC West a four-way race, maybe they become aggressive at the deadline to give themselves an edge down the stretch. And the Patriots are a team that seems to have some promise but also some roster holes to fill.

You never know at this point who the surprise contenders will be come midseason, but there always seems to be at least one. Somewhere out there, there's a team we think will be dealing away guys but could turn out to be adding them. And of course, vice versa.

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How Daniel Jones has proved Orlovsky wrong

Dan Orlovsky tells Pat McAfee why he has been so impressed with Colts QB Daniel Jones this season.

Where are the scheme-fit discrepancies?

Watch out for teams with new coordinators on either side of the ball that get into the season and realize that maybe some of the players who were already there don't mesh with what the new coordinator wants to run.

The defense Matt Eberflus is running in Dallas, for example, is a lot different from what Mike Zimmer ran last season, and Dan Quinn the year before that. Let's say they find out they have a young cornerback who fits better as a zone corner than one or more of their incumbents do. Does that make someone such as Trevon Diggs a trade candidate? That is pure speculation, but it's an example of the point. New offensive schemes in places such as Chicago, Jacksonville and New England, and new defensive schemes in New Orleans, Las Vegas and Indianapolis could result in some personnel changes that aren't necessarily tied to a team's place in the standings.

Which teams have cap space -- and which don't?

Any salary a team acquires during the season has to fit under the salary cap. Even if you are going to restructure your new player's contract to fit under the cap, you still have to have enough space at the time of the acquisition.

So while teams such as the Bills, Chiefs, Colts and Ravens might end up wanting to make deals for impact players, they all rank among the teams with the least amount of cap space at this time. The Patriots, Lions, Cowboys, Commanders, 49ers, Seahawks and Buccaneers are among the teams with the most space and might be in better positions to add.

Also remember that the amount teams have to pay the player drops every week. If someone acquired Hill before the season, they would have had to pay his full $10 million salary. But if they acquire him next week, after three games have been played, they have to pay him only $8.3 million for the rest of the season (because the Dolphins will have already paid him three weeks' worth of the $10 million). If they wait until right before the deadline, they have to pay Hill only $5 million for the rest of the season.

Who else will get hurt, and how does that affect movement?

The unfortunate fact of the league is that there are more injuries to come -- and to significant players. Burrow and the Tampa Bay offensive linemen are among this week's prominent examples, but between now and the trade deadline, there are sure to be injuries significant enough to alter teams' evaluations of what they need and their overall approach to the deadline.