NFL Insider Jason La Canfora’s Week 10 Notebook: The Winners & Losers From Trade Deadline

The NFL trade deadline did not disappoint. HENDERSON, NEVADA – AUGUST 03: Kirk Cousins #8 of the Las Vegas Raiders reacts to a fan yelling his “You like that?!” celebration as he stretches during the team’s training camp at the Las Vegas Raiders Headquarters/Intermountain Health Performance Center on August 03, 2026 in Henderson, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) There was a splash every couple of weeks from around Week 3 until it finally passed on Tuesday afternoon. Teams are ambitious and the tone that was set in the summer, with the Rams making a power move for Myles Garrett, with the excitement carrying all the way into November as we expected. Some teams set themselves up for a brave new horizon starting at the 2027 draft. Far too many, frankly, didn’t do enough to either buy or sell as much as necessary, and a handful of teams absolutely may have swung the Lombardi Trophy pendulum more in their favor. Perhaps in a very profound way. There are the teams that stood out the most to some of our contacts around the NFL, for better or worse. More doesn’t always mean better, and less doesn’t always mean worse, but there was certain a level of intensity that some front offices took to this opportunity to reshape themselves that caught the attention of execs around the league. It stands to reason that some of these teams have made their immediate future much better, and many will continue to wallow, unable to seize the moment to begin transforming their outcomes. The Winners Philadelphia Eagles: We were right that they would sell one of their defensive tackles, and they got a QB-level return for Jordan Davis, getting a first-and-second-round pick. GM Howie Roseman alertly loaded up on 2027 and 2028 picks (it started when dealing AJ Brown in the summer), landing what could be a top 40 overall pick for broken offensive lineman Cam Jurgens. He retained a star left tackle to try to rebuild his left tackle around and is so loaded with draft picks he can be at the front of the suitors for Lamar Jackson or Justin Herbert or whomever he fancies (it’s over with Jalen Hurts there). “I think Howie is the best out there right now,” longtime general manager Marty Hurney opined to me more than once as they navigated a season filled with injuries and setbacks with aplomb from a transaction standpoint Jacksonville Jaguars: They paid a steep price in trades for Davis and safety Jessie Bates; this is also a franchise that never does anything big. They have had a lack of vision, cunning and a cutting edge forever, and head coach Liam Coen has brought all that in droves. They were clearly driven by what’s hanging over them; a coaching staff that’s likely to get poached by other teams, a tougher schedule in 2027 as a potential top seed and having to play all their home games outside of Jacksonville due to stadium construction. “They needed a sense of urgency,” one longtime NFL personnel exec told me. “They sensed the opportunity that’s out there with no dominant team.” Minnesota Vikings: They had to get a quarterback; A real quarterback. Not Daniel Jones, and whatever that is after Achilles surgery. Not Jacoby Brissett. They needed a different scale of passer and ideally someone with deep ties to coach Kevin O’Connell’s system. They checked all of those boxes and only parting with a third-round pick for Kirk Cousins was massive. Kyler Murray and Carson Wentz were failures. “That team was about to fracture,” one GM explained. “The defense was going to crack.” That unit was holding the team together but with no QB play, the receivers were losing it and at some point the defense was going to succumb to the lack of support. Cousins didn’t have anything like this cast round him in Vegas; the pass game will open up the run game. The Losers Los Angeles Chargers: No one can figure them out. They are a horrible football team that isn’t even threatening to win games, they haven’t fired anybody (yet) and they kept a slew of older players on bad contracts then dealt an ascending linebacker. “I don’t get it at all,” the GM said. “They didn’t really want to talk about doing anything.” Truly bizarre. They don’t merit any fan support the rest of the way and they won’t get it. More people we talk to think that head coach Jim Harbaugh and the quarterback won’t be back next season. “That looks a reboot to me,” a personnel exec suggested. Baltimore Ravens: This team is nowhere close to competing for a Super Bowl and loves to wrap itself in history while going backwards and getting further removed from any sort of salad day. The decision to hire a rookie head coach and a bunch of kid coaches backfired immediately, they are running a $370M payroll with the worst cap situation in the NFL in 2027 and no leverage over QB Lamar Jackson at all. “The QB has them by the balls,” the GM said. “They should have sold but they think that’s beneath them. They were never going to sell. They are (screwed) next year with Lamar or without him.” They don’t have a young core and a roster purge is coming. Kansas City Chiefs: Landing receiver Josh Downs is probably going to turn out to be not nearly enough. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes is taking massive hits, they have offensive line issues, the run game has cooled off after a torrid start. This team is always Super Bowl or bust, the offense has not been explosive and truly dynamic for quite some time and they made the entire offseason about the defense. It was an expectation throughout the industry that they would do something significant at multiple areas of the offense. “I thought they’d do more, really,” the GM said. I’m not sure they are built to survive some of the elite defenses in the NFL they’ll face in January. Indianapolis Colts: This should have been a complete and total teardown. Playing games about Jones not being available and pretending like the decision to keep that QB wasn’t a massive error after firing the GM in season who orchestrated it, is myopic. Keeping a running back who will never be around for a playoff game, whether they get back to the postseason or not, despite the ability to get a second-round pick and more for him (Jonathan Taylor), was baffling and made people wonder about just how on point their newish ownership group will be. If they try to win with at all with Jones next season that’s silly, and playing a tanking season with a QB with no upside is just as bad. The post NFL Insider Jason La Canfora’s Week 10 Notebook: The Winners & Losers From Trade Deadline appeared first on Casino.org.