The Story with Rachel Nichols: Albert Breer’s NFL Trade Deadline Winners and Losers

Hi, I'm Rachel Nichols here with Albert Breer.

Welcome to the story.

Now, Albert, NFL fans were checking their phones nonstop with all of the trade deadline news, and some teams made moves to strengthen their playoff chances.

Other teams obviously more focused on building for the future.

I want to break down everything that happened yesterday.

Which teams got better?

And are any of these moves going to make a real difference down the stretch?

So we'll just start with that.

What stood out to you the most from the deadline?

I'd say Kirk Cousins.

Um, it's just so rare that a starting quarterback has moved in the middle of the season that way, and I, I can't think of, you know, a precedent for what we saw where You know, you have a guy who's a starting quarterback for a team that's in the playoff hunt in the Raiders, and you know, now we can talk about how real that is or not.

Um, but, you know, they, they, they still are very much in the, in the race, and they moved their starting quarterback to another team that is, you know, one of the best teams in all of football, you know, through, through 9 weeks, and that's the Minnesota Vikings.

And so, it was a unique set of circumstances that created it, you know, obviously, The Vikings had the injury to, to, to Kyler Murray and then, you know, Carson Wentz, and this is like the really weird thing, you know, Rachel, I'm talking to people over the course of the last like 5-6 hours, like a lot of this happened because of the way the Vikings played on offense on Monday night and you know Carson Wentz, who they, they thought had a good week of practice, didn't play well, and it was sort of like we cannot put the rest of these guys in that position, the rest of the guys on offense.

The guys who've been playing at a historic level on defense, like we need to give them a better answer.

And so the opportunity was there, you know, luckily enough for them to, to go and acquire a quarterback who not only has played at a really high level over the course of his career, but also obviously has a ton of background in, in Kevin O'Connell's offense, having been his quarterback in 22 and 23.

Yesterday I said it was a win, win, win, win.

A win for the Raiders because they were going to transition from Cousins to Mendoza anyway.

And this way they got out with rock solid play.

And I think they only paid him, you would know this, $650,000 for the year, which relatively for a starting quarterback is a big deal.

Um, and they get to move Mendoza in.

In a way that's just natural, right?

It doesn't have to be, oh, Cousins failed.

Here's a controversy, we're going to move Mendoza, whatever.

And he's probably ready after 6 months of working with everyone behind the scenes.

So that's a win.

The Vikings obviously big win here for all the reasons you just said about how Cousins fits into their system, but also, look, man, I know Justin Jefferson, Justin.

Jefferson is a professional, but so he's probably not spending last night drinking.

But if he had been and partying up a storm, I wouldn't have blamed him.

I mean, it has been rough in terms of even when Kyler was healthy, getting passes and having the passing game, not feel like a just hold your breath moment every time.

Sometimes you miss this about like great athletes is that.

It's hard for them to shut off the competitive part of who they are when it comes to their individual success and their individual performance.

I think we saw this with Tom Brady at the end with some of the frustration he had in New England and part of what precipitated his departure and, and him landing in Tampa was, you know, he felt like there wasn't enough around him at the end in New England, and it was affecting his individual performance.

And even though they were still winning, he wasn't able to play the level that he wanted to, and I think that dynamic definitely exists for Justin Jefferson .

Um, look, I've talked to him in the past about his goals, and he wants to retire as one of the greatest receivers of all time, you know, and so your ability to perform at that level and be that guy is materially affected by the quarterback.

And on the Raiders side, I, I, I do wanna touch on that, Rachel, because I think it's important.

Over the last couple of weeks, I can tell you the Raiders, I, I've heard from Raiders people like Mendoza is ready.

Like they're really prioritizing building the culture there and for Clint Kubiak, like a huge piece of this was, OK, like if we are gonna go to Mendoza, I don't want the guys on the team thinking like we're waving the white flag.

I, you know, you wanna reward a guy who's done everything right and Cousins has done everything right.

And so this doesn't have to be like an awkward benching.

The upside is we all get to watch, um, Fernando Mendoza play.

We all get to see the sort of progress that he's made.

Yes, win, win, win, win, win.

So the Raiders won, Fernando Mendoza won, Kirk Cousins won, the Vikings won, Justin Jefferson won, and I guess there's a 6th win, which is us as the.

Fans, that's an excellent point.

All right, I want to stay in the AFC West.

The Chiefs added Josh Downs.

The Broncos, I mean, somehow got what the Chargers defense to come to them.

But yeah, I want to sort of, let's start with the Chiefs, right?

Because always of interest, that team.

What do you think?

I mean , we've been asking them to get a receiver for 600 years.

Feels like, what do you think of that move and, and how will that affect them long term through the season?

They had been looking, and, you know, I, I, I think part of the issue they have is they've got some young guys they like that have been less than consistent.

So, you know, Rashi Rice has had the off-field issues.

They, they feel like he's got a high, high ceiling.

Like he can be a top 10 receiver in the league, but Like how long are you gonna wait for this, you know, and it's, he's in his 4th year now, and so can you rely on him?

You have, um, a, a rookie they really like in Cyrus Allen, but he's a rookie, so there's gonna be some ups and downs.

Xavier Worthy, you know, you're still figuring out what he is in his 3rd year.

You know, I, I think because of the upside, Brian Thomas Jr.

was probably the first guy that they had circled.

Jacksonville wasn't trading him.

Um, you know, the Jags, of course, as all their moves over the last couple of days show, they're really in like a win now position, and they felt like, you know, for a million different reasons, it didn't make sense to trade Thomas now, and if they're gonna do it, it made more sense to do it after the season.

Uh, so then Downs is sort of the next best thing, and you're going into the weekend, I had a pretty good feel this was gonna happen, and I think, you know, it was sort of like, uh , it's at a 4th round pick.

So can they, can, can we get a little bit more?

That's the way the Colts are thinking.

You know, I think, you know, the Chiefs hope they get more out of Allen.

I hope they get more out of Rice, they hope they get more out of Worthy, but, you know, among the young players now, Downs is sort of the proven commodity and gives them somebody they can count on and that Mahomes can go to in critical situations to move the chains and Um, and be a reliable target when it matters most.

I think when you have a Patrick Mahomes on your roster, that is a generational, once in a lifetime sort of guy, you give him, you trade away every asset, you give him everything to work with because he's going to eventually retire, and you won't have that anymore.

And your team is going.

To be worse once he is gone or is it the end of his career anyway?

It's not like you're guessing what it's going to be coming off the ACL.

They're in the thick of it.

And so like now you got the proof.

It's like, OK, like we're back to where we were a couple of years ago and like we need to operate the same way we have been.

Um, since Patrick Mahomes became the starting quarterback.

So we talked a little bit earlier about the moves Jacksonville made, but how do you feel they fit into the Super Bowl favorites scheme given what they did yesterday?

I think they're right at the top, Rachel.

They're 15-3 in their last regular in their last 18 regular season games.

When I looked this up last week, it caught me off guard.

9 of those 15 wins are by 14 points or more.

That doesn't happen in the NFL.

That, that is insane, right?

Yeah, it just doesn't happen.

And, you know, the one playoff game that they played in was a tooth and nail, tooth and nail fight with the best player in football, um, Josh Allen, and it was similar to the sort of game that Buffalo played and lost the next week against Denver.

So I, I don't know how you wouldn't think they're right there based on how they've played this year, based on what happened last year, and they've got their core, um, in place, which makes, you know, which gives you a little more flexibility in what you're doing with the draft picks and you know, I think they saw a fit in all three guys they brought in the 2D tackles, they lost Devon Hamilton, who, um, is a really, really good player for them.

One of, um, one of the guys there said he was an anvil for their defense, but, um, you know, what they want to do is they want to build a defense that's superpower is stopping the run and forcing teams into bad down and distance situations, and that's what Davis is, and that's what Godhow is.

You know, and then Jesse Bates replaces another injured guy in Eric Murray.

They see some traits in Bates that they saw in Jacoby Myers when they acquired him last year, you know, for the offense, um, you know, on defense, Bates is gonna bring intelligence, toughness, savvy.

They really, they really feel like you can make their entire defense smarter , you know, obviously adding three pieces like this right up against the deadline.

If you're talking about being on the margins with, you know, the very best teams in the league, these are 3 guys that can really help.

Absolutely.

Again, this is exactly what I was saying about Patrick Mahomes earlier.

You have the The stars have aligned.

You've made smart moves.

The guys are healthy right now.

All the things.

This is when you go for it.

This is it.

The other side is the teams that just emptied everything because they're like, great, let's admit failure and prepare for the future, which is what I thought the Colts were going to do.

But then why is Jonathan Taylor still on this team?

Because they didn't get their price.

And , and if you, if you look and you, you dig into the guys that they traded away, the 4 guys, none of them were under contract next year.

So Josh Downs, De Forest Buckner, Quentin Nelson, and Keenan Allen, they were all up, you know, I think ownership came in and wanted to have a job that was attractive for the next general manager if they're gonna make a coaching change, same thing on that end.

And they didn't have capital to turn the roster over because they traded their first round pick, uh, as part of the Sauce Gardner trade last year.

So, um, she wanted them to go and collect capital and, and, and see what they could do, uh, you know, as part of all of this, they've added a 3, they've added 2 4s, they've added 2 5s, they've added a 6.

And so, you know, now, you at least have volume of picks to work with if you're the next general manager, whether that's Ed Dodds or someone else.

Taylor's a little different because he's under contract next year.

And really the feeling there was, if we're gonna move him, it's got to be for a premium return.

So they said that at either a first-round pick or a package like the Christian McCaffrey package.

You know, the Giants came, I think, closest to it.

Nobody could kind of rise to that level.

So the good news is, Rachel, because he's under contract.

Now he's an asset for whoever's next there.

That makes a lot of sense.

A team that usually is one of the smartest front offices that we talk about decided to hold on to Saquon Barkley.

He is still in Philadelphia.

What does that tell you about his future with the Eagles?

I don't know if they were ever going to get what it would take to justify a trade like that, and Saquan.

It's hard to believe next year is gonna be his 10th year.

That's crazy.

Yeah, he's expensive and he's hurt right now, you know.

He's dealing with the hamstring and, and I think anybody who's watched in the last couple of weeks, like, obviously he's sat some, and then, you know, when he was in there, um, you know, on that was the Monday night they play Monday night or Sunday night, Sunday night, like, you know, in week 8, it was hard to watch at times where he just, you see him, he comes off, he's grabbing his hamstring, and it was difficult to get a full return for him.

Um, and so, you know, I, I think in that case you kind of, that's another one you sort of punt to the offseason and you make a decision on his future when you get to February and March.

They have 10 picks in the 1st 3 rounds over the next Rose.

It's crazy.

I mean, it's, there's, there's no one better.

I wanna make sure I get this right, but like, as a result of the AJ Brown, Cam Jergens, and, uh, and, and Jordan Davis trade, which were all made in this calendar year, all made within the last 6 months.

You, you now have two firsts in 2027, 2 firsts and 2 seconds in 2028, and then 2 seconds in 2029, which is an unbelievable amount of draft picks.

And you know, just when you think the clock is running out on the, on the core that Howie's built, now all of a sudden they're set up to, to build the next one.

It's pretty incredible.

Now it is go time for these teams, and we will be checking in with you, Albert, throughout the rest of the season.

We really We appreciate you making the time.

For sure.

And uh, you know, speaking of trades, I got Jalen Brown on my TV now, so we'll see how that goes.

Thank you for watching this story.

You know that here at Sports Illustrated, as we talked about today, the games may end, but the stories don't.