The NFL trade deadline is 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday, which is all kinds of wrong. It should be later in the season so teams have more time to figure out whether they're actually in the playoff race, and whether they should be adding impact players or dealing them away.
But Oct. 31 is what we've got, so there are some teams that have to figure all that out really quickly over the next 24-48 hours. What you don't want your team to do is overreact, and that's what we're here to sort out. Calling around the league last week, I was a little shocked by how many times I heard a team was waiting to see what happened Sunday before deciding what to do. I mean, really? You're going to let this come down to the result of one game? That's just about the ultimate overreaction.
So since we know that teams around the league were sitting around last week prepared to overreact to Week 8 results, we feel like a trade-deadline-themed overreactions column -- where we judge a few potential takeaways from the weekend's games -- is appropriate. We start in Tennessee, where a rookie authored one of the stunning stories of the day.
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Titans | Vikings | Jets | 49ers | Chiefs
Ryan Tannehill has played his final game for the Titans
With Tannehill injured (right ankle) and out for this game, Titans coach Mike Vrabel said both of his backup quarterbacks would play. That meant Will Levis, who was the 33rd overall pick in this year's draft, and Malik Willis, who was the Titans' third-round pick in 2022. Well, Willis had two carries for 4 yards and Levis was the only Titans QB to throw a pass in this game -- and that appeared to be the correct decision because Levis was awesome.
Unafraid to push the ball down the field to DeAndre Hopkins, Levis uncorked four touchdown passes (three to Hopkins) in his debut. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he joined Fran Tarkenton (1961) and Marcus Mariota (2015) as the only players in NFL history to throw that many in their first career game. Three of them were thrown at least 30 yards downfield; the Titans hadn't thrown a single TD of 30-plus air yards over their previous 42 games combined, per ESPN Stats & Information.
In all, Levis was 19-for-29 for 238 yards and did not turn the ball over as Tennessee beat Atlanta -- a team that chose not to select Levis or any other quarterback in the 2023 draft and waited until Week 8 to bench a clearly overmatched Desmond Ridder. Levis looked a lot more like the guy we all thought would be taken near the top of the first round of the draft than the guy who tumbled into the top of the second. The Titans play again Thursday in Pittsburgh, and it feels likely Tannehill has to miss another game. But if so, the Titans rookie seriously opened some eyes Sunday.
Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION
Quarterbacks are dropping like flies to injury around the league, and Tannehill is in the final year of his contract. Trade for him this week, and you have to pay him $15 million for the rest of the season. If you believe he's coming back from his high ankle sprain soon (and we have no reason to think it's a long-term problem), that's a pretty good price for the services of a competent starting quarterback.
Again, the Titans have selected a QB within the first three rounds in each of the past two drafts. It's pretty clear Tannehill isn't in their 2024 plans. They should take whatever they can get for him between now and Tuesday afternoon. They might even want to consider paying some of the remaining salary, if the return is good enough.
Regardless, Levis earned at least one more start with his performance Sunday, and who'd blame the Titans if they wanted to give him the rest of the season? It's the best their offense has looked all year.
The Vikings should trade for Tannehill
Unfortunately for the Vikings, it appears quarterback Kirk Cousins has torn his right Achilles tendon and will miss the rest of the season. It's a really lousy break for Minnesota, which has won three games in a row (including Monday night's stunner over the 49ers) to improve to 4-4 and move within a game and a half of first-place Detroit (whom the Vikings still get to play twice) in the NFC North.
It sounds like receiver Justin Jefferson will be back from his hamstring injury at some point before the season is over, and rookie Jordan Addison has blossomed as a star in his place. The Vikings were looking like a viable playoff contender these past couple of weeks -- they won on Sunday against Green Bay -- and adding a veteran quarterback to replace Cousins would make a lot of sense if they're planning to try to pay that off.
Verdict: OVERREACTION
Leaving aside the fact that Tannehill would have to learn a new offense on the fly, and the fact that he's currently injured, the Vikings have to be honest with themselves here. They won all those one-score games last season en route to a division title but haven't been the same team this year, current winning streak aside. Odds are good that they'll be looking for a long-term solution at quarterback in next year's draft or maybe a shorter-term solution on the free agent market -- or maybe both. I don't see why, in this rebuilding mode that they're clearly about to be in, they should be giving up draft assets for a short-term patch at quarterback.
Is there anything in Tannehill's history to convince you he's the guy to lead you to a Super Bowl? I think there are teams that might be a competent QB away from being real contenders. The Jets? Possibly. The Falcons? Perhaps. But the Vikings, I believe, would be kidding themselves -- not to mention underrating Cousins -- to think they could just bring in a veteran, plug him in and get the same results they were getting.
The Vikings need to swallow hard and maybe even think about dealing players like edge rusher Danielle Hunter away if they get the right offers over the next couple of days. It's a tough way to go at 4-4, and I doubt they'll do it. But if they're being honest with themselves, it's the right thing to do.
OK, then ... the Jets should trade for Tannehill
Oh my God, you guys. I was at Jets-Giants on Sunday, and I'm not sure my eyes or my soul will ever recover from what we witnessed. The Jets had 58 rushing yards on 22 carries. They lost two fumbles in their own territory. They did not force a Giants turnover. They committed nine penalties, several of which extended drives that the Giants clearly would not have been able to extend without their assistance. They were 2-for-15 on third-down conversion attempts and didn't convert one until the fourth quarter. And ... they won.
They won because the Giants didn't have Daniel Jones, lost Tyrod Taylor to injury in the first half and had to put in Tommy DeVito at quarterback. They clearly were not interested in letting DeVito throw, and he didn't complete a pass until overtime, when he hit Saquon Barkley on a couple of passes behind the line of scrimmage. The Giants tried to run the whole thing through Barkley and just hang on while the Jets kept making mistakes.
And who knows? If the Giants' Graham Gano had hit a 35-yard field goal attempt in the final two minutes, they might have held on. But he didn't, and Jets quarterback Zach Wilson made two huge clutch throws to get the Jets into game-tying field goal range, and then they won in overtime.
Talking to Jets players after the game, they had no idea how they managed to win. Wide receiver Garrett Wilson told me on the field, "We had no business being in that game." But win the Jets did, and they are 4-3 in spite of losing Aaron Rodgers to an Achilles injury on the fourth play of the season.
Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION
Why the Jets and not the Vikings? Well, because the Jets have another option who has some experience. Say what you want about Wilson, but he has started 28 NFL games, and he was actually playing better over the past month before Sunday's debacle. And for what it's worth, he didn't let the debacle get him down and was able to orchestrate the game-tying and game-winning drives when it mattered.
If you're the Jets, who got a whole pile of cap space back when Rodgers agreed to a preseason pay cut, you could bring in Tannehill as another option. That gives him time to learn the offense while Wilson plays. Let your defense and your run game keep you in games as they've been doing, and you can go to Tannehill if Wilson starts to really falter again. It's not an Aaron Rodgers problem, because Tannehill's contract is up after this year, and he wouldn't be in Rodgers' way in 2024.
This one makes more sense than the Vikings because, outside of quarterback, the Jets' roster is in better shape. Adding a veteran to the QB room helps guard against the kind of trouble that could do in a roster that otherwise feels playoff-caliber.
The 49ers need to make another big, Christian McCaffrey-level deadline move like they made last season
Remember all the way back in Week 5, when the Niners walloped the Cowboys 42-10 and improved to 5-0? We were all so young. Red-and-gold stars in our eyes. How could we have known what was to come?
Since that Sunday night, the 49ers have lost three games in a row -- at Cleveland, at Minnesota and then at home Sunday to the suddenly surging Bengals. According to ESPN Stats & Information, they are the first team since the 2020 Steelers to start at 5-0 or better and then lose three straight. The 49ers wake up Monday morning in second place in their division, a half-game back of the first-place Seahawks. If the season ended today, they would be the No. 6 seed in the NFC and open the playoffs with a road game in Detroit on wild-card weekend.
The Niners scored at least 30 points in each of their first five games, and they've scored exactly 17 in each of the three games since then. Their vaunted defense was just shredded twice in seven days by Cousins and Joe Burrow. Something is off, and Week 5 seems like a long time ago.
Verdict: OVERREACTION
They could stand to add a player on defense, maybe at cornerback or on the defensive line. And they have definitely been monitoring the market for those positions. But I don't see why they need a move as massive as the McCaffrey trade.
They've been missing left tackle Trent Williams and wide receiver Deebo Samuel the past couple of weeks, but those guys' injuries don't seem to be season-ending, and it's possible they'll both be back soon. They're extremely important players for San Francisco, and the offense should function better once they return. And I don't think Nick Bosa, Fred Warner & Co. have forgotten how to play defense. Bosa recently admitted he started the season rusty following his offseason contract holdout, so maybe he gets stronger as the season goes on.
This is a lull for an excellent Niners team, and I don't think they need to dump a trove of picks to try to plug some holes. They'll be fine.
The Chiefs need to get DeAndre Hopkins from the Titans
Well, or some veteran wide receiver, right? The inexperience in that WR group continues to plague the Chiefs on a somewhat weekly basis, whether it's drops or little mistakes that lead to stalled drives.
Kansas City lost to the Broncos on Sunday for the first time since 2015 -- two years before the Chiefs drafted Patrick Mahomes. It was a brutally lackluster performance. Mahomes had two interceptions and no touchdown throws. Three Harrison Butker field goals were the only points Kansas City scored. The Chiefs turned it over five times and gained just 275 yards. And while 10 different players caught Mahomes' passes Sunday, none of them had 60 receiving yards.
Lousy day at the office for the defending champs.
Verdict: OVERREACTION
The Chiefs could afford Hopkins. His remaining salary for this season is only about $600,000, and his $13 million in 2024 salary and bonus money is not guaranteed. But after winning Sunday, the Titans are a game out of a playoff spot and might not be ready to deal veterans. Plus, the Chiefs have a lot of young talent at wide receiver, and they showed in 2022 they have the ability to develop young talent as the season goes along.
Overreacting to Sunday, which was their second loss of the season, would be a mistake. Mahomes had flu-like symptoms and was getting IVs all day. The Broncos were basically playing their Super Bowl and had just lost to the Chiefs two weeks earlier. The Chiefs are good for one or two of these a season -- games in which they just inexplicably beat themselves. They aren't going to turn it over five times every game, and trading for a veteran isn't the kind of move that would be certain to fix that, anyway. If I'm 90% sure the 49ers are going to be fine, I'm 110% sure the Chiefs will be.
Brush this one off, make sure Mahomes pushes fluids and regroup for next week's game against the Dolphins in Germany.