There’s a lot of time and energy invested in speculating about potential trade candidates this time of year. We have an article we’ve been updating weekly with trade candidates from around the league, and the list of names is at 81 right now.
Sometimes, though, it’s just as instructive to know who isn’t going to be traded. Teams will shoot their shot for certain guys under the principle of “you have not because you ask not,” and it results in a lot of names floating around in rumors this time of year. There are a lot of practical considerations that go into any trade, though, and there are situations where it just does not add up.
It’s always risky to come out and definitively say something is not going to happen, as the NFL has a way of proving the overconfident wrong. But in this article, we’re going to call our shot anyway. Here are six players we have a high, high degree of confidence will not be traded before the NFL trade deadline:
Eagles WR A.J. Brown
Brown has been one of the biggest names to circulate in trade rumors so far this fall, and there are a bunch of reasons. There’s naturally a lot of interest in big-name skill position players and Brown is one of the best receivers in football. He also plays in one of the most engaged and invested football cities in the country in Philadelphia. That’s put extra attention on all of the questions surrounding Brown, including how much he was getting the ball to start the season, the role that played in the Eagles’ struggles on offense and the relationship between him, the team and his quarterback.
Wide receivers are known for having a certain set of personality traits, and that does make Brown’s happiness or lack thereof worth monitoring. He wouldn’t be the first receiver to either try and force his way into a change of scenery or just wear thin his welcome. That’s why other teams are keeping tabs on the situation, with multiple anonymous quotes coming out in the past month from high-ranking front office executives saying they expected Philadelphia to make Brown available.
So far the Eagles haven’t gotten that memo, with multiple reports in recent weeks all stating that the team is rebuffing any trade interest in Brown. There are plenty of football reasons the Eagles wouldn’t want to move Brown — and he put up a reminder of that with four catches, 121 yards and two touchdowns in a Week 7 win over the Vikings. He’s still the best pass catcher on a team with Super Bowl goals.
It’s also, practically speaking, incredibly difficult for the Eagles to trade Brown without forcing a major recalibration in their budget. Philadelphia uses a unique structure for its major contracts, tying up most of the money in signing bonuses and option bonuses that spread the cap hit out over a longer period of time. It allows the Eagles to maximize cap space more than other teams but it means their actual cash spending is higher. That bill comes due on the cap when a player is no longer on the roster, whether it’s a release, retirement or a trade.
Trading Brown at any point between now and next June would cause $43 million in dead money to accelerate onto the Eagles’ balance sheet for 2026 rather than being spread out in its current fashion. That’s $20 million higher than Brown’s scheduled 2026 cap hit, which means the Eagles would lose $20 million in cap space by trading Brown. Per Over The Cap, the Eagles have just $26 million in effective cap space for 2026, so trading Brown would eat up nearly all of that.
There are reasons the Eagles might be willing to explore a trade for Brown sometime next calendar year. He’s owed $29 million in guarantees and while the Eagles would take a short-term hit no matter what, in the long run they could decide it’s worth saving that cash from being added to the bill. The relationship between the two sides also remains a variable to monitor. But it makes no sense for the Eagles to trade Brown in-season, not while they’re trying to win another Super Bowl.
Bengals DE Trey Hendrickson
For now, the idea of a Hendrickson trade has cooled following the Bengals’ pivotal AFC North win last Thursday against the Steelers. It pushed Cincinnati to 3-4 on the season and halved the gap between them and division-leading Pittsburgh. With games against the Jets and Bears before a bye and re-energized from the trade for QB Joe Flacco, the Bengals are feeling good about being able to stay afloat for some late-season heroics from QB Joe Burrow, tracking for a mid-December return from his turf toe injury.
But what if the Bengals lose to the previously winless Jets? What if they drop the following week to the Bears who are on a hot streak after an 0-2 start and are 3-6 before the trade deadline? The Athletic’s playoff simulator gives Cincinnati just a four percent chance for the postseason in that scenario (compared to 14 percent today and nearly 25 percent if they win both games). With those odds, there’s a case to be made that the best long-term move for the franchise would be taking the best deal for Hendrickson at the deadline rather than potentially watching him walk for nothing in 2026.
That’s not how the Bengals operate, though. They’re a historically conservative organization when it comes to player movement, with fewer trades sending out players than other organizations and even less during the regular season. They have a pattern of overvaluing their own players in trade talks as well. Cincinnati did have some discussions about trading Hendrickson as it navigated a contentious contract standoff this offseason but it never felt like a trade was particularly close. It’s quite possible there’s a Part II this coming offseason, as the Bengals reserved the ability to franchise Hendrickson in 2026. That has the potential to get even more tense, as Hendrickson would have a lot more leverage on the tag than he did under contract this past year when he still held out and subjected himself to fines.
For now, the win over the Steelers has all but ensured Hendrickson will remain in Cincinnati through the end of this season as the team tries to sneak into a playoff spot for the third straight year. The Bengals see Hendrickson as too valuable to the defense and too important to their chances, slim as they may be.
Dolphins WR Jaylen Waddle
When teams are bad, it always prompts speculation about a “fire sale” — everything must go, discounts galore, that kind of thing. The conversation around struggling teams like the Dolphins reflects that, with other squads circling like vultures hoping to pick off attractive pieces at a bargain.
That’s rarely how it ends up going, even for rebuilding teams. Quick turnarounds are possible, even common, in the NFL which has engineered the rules to encourage parity. It also disincentivizes the Dolphins to trade players like Waddle, a playmaker at a premium position who is still in the prime of his career.
There have been multiple reports that the Dolphins have received trade interest in Waddle, a 26-year-old wideout with three 1,000-yard seasons under his belt. There have been equal, if not more, reports that the Dolphins have zero intentions of trading him, even if his statistical output has been hurt by the overall offensive struggles the last two years. Waddle signed a three-year deal before last year that averaged $28 million a year and included significant guarantees. He ended up with just 744 receiving yards in 2024.
However, the injury to Dolphins WR Tyreek Hill has elevated Waddle to the No. 1 target in the passing game, and he’s on track for a better receiving total this season. With Hill’s future cloudy past this season, Waddle is looking like the primary weapon on offense for the next couple of seasons. Even if current GM Chris Grier and HC Mike McDaniel aren’t in charge next year, Waddle will almost certainly be held in high regard by the people who are.
There’s also a financial consideration. Because of how the Dolphins structured Waddle’s contract, trading him would actually increase his cap hit in 2026 — which is a problem considering Miami is already in the red and will have to make some major moves to get back in the black. Short of a massive trade package involving a first-round pick and other premium picks or assets, it’s hard to see how trading Waddle would help the Dolphins.
Saints WR Chris Olave
Another notable receiver cropping up in trade rumors, Olave has shaken off a 2024 season marred by concussions and is averaging a career-high 10 targets per game. New Saints HC Kellen Moore has made him a big part of the passing game and is getting him a lot more short targets than previous play-callers. The Saints may be struggling to put up wins but Olave is putting up strong numbers.
It’s good timing for the former first-round pick, as next year is the final year of his rookie contract after the Saints exercised his fifth-year option this past May. Based on the way the receiver market has boomed and Olave’s pace so far, he’ll be in a great position in the spring. Two of Olave’s fellow 2022 draft classmates have signed extensions this year — Jets WR Garrett Wilson at $32.5 million a year and Lions WR Jameson Williams at $26.6 million a season. Olave figures to come in closer to Wilson than Williams if he keeps things up.
The two sides have been engaged in contract discussions already, and it’s actually the lack of a deal so far that seems to have prompted other teams to check in with New Orleans, hoping the Saints are skittish about committing big bucks to Olave with his concussion history. That’s probably a factor in negotiations, and it would not be surprising if the Saints want Olave to get through this season healthy before finalizing an extension.
However, it would be a surprise if the Saints moved off Olave altogether. Receiver is a premium position and the Saints don’t have much else to build around when it comes to skill position talent. Veteran RB Alvin Kamara will be 31 next year and in the last year of his contract. Fellow WR Rashid Shaheed is in a contract year and the Saints might not be able to retain him. If the Saints dip back into the well for a young quarterback in the first round next year, they need to make sure they’re surrounding him with talent to thrive. Trading Olave wouldn’t accomplish that.
Raiders DE Maxx Crosby
Crosby made an appearance in last year’s version of this article as well after some interesting comments that in hindsight appear designed to nudge the Raiders his direction in contract talks. The Raiders did indeed give Crosby a new deal this offseason, adding three more years to the two he had left with $106.5 million in new money, pushing him to $35.5 million a year in average annual salary.
Now once again, Crosby’s name has cropped up in trade rumors, as the arrival of new HC Pete Carroll, GM John Spytek, team president Tom Brady and QB Geno Smith have not been enough to end the losing for the Raiders. Las Vegas is 2-5 and like all struggling teams in a rebuild, there’s speculation about trading star players. The Cowboys have come up specifically, as they need a pass rusher after dealing away Micah Parsons and they have extra picks from that deal. The Raiders have moved to squash that both publicly and privately with Crosby.
Teams lie all the time when it comes to blockbuster trades, as evidenced by how the Cowboys said repeatedly they couldn’t envision trading Parsons — until they could. Admitting that a player is available in trade talks hurts a team’s negotiating leverage and creates the potential for fallout with the player if a deal doesn’t go through. So when teams say they have “no plans” of trading a player or “no intentions” or however they phrase it, know that plans change.
Still, there’s reason to take the Raiders at face value. Teams aren’t usually in the business of giving away elite pass rushers once they find them — it was shocking that Dallas and owner Jerry Jones were willing to part with Parsons. Crosby is not only one of the best at his position, he embodies everything the Raiders want to be both on and off the field. He’s been perhaps the hardest worker on the team even after cashing in big-time on multiple massive deals, and he regularly plays through injuries that would sideline others. There’s a reason Carroll, Spytek and Brady were comfortable handing over all that cash to Crosby before he played a game in their program.
That deal also speaks volumes about how the Raiders view Crosby. Parsons was traded because the Cowboys didn’t feel comfortable paying him. While Crosby’s deal is structured in a way that wouldn’t leave crippling dead money hits if he were traded, the intent remains crystal clear. The Raiders didn’t pay Crosby to trade him, they paid him to be a foundation of a rebuild, even if it’s not going as quickly as they may have hoped.
Jets RB Breece Hall
If I’m going to be wrong about any player in this article and get Old Takes Exposed, it’s going to be Hall. There are good reasons to think Hall could be pried away from New York before the trade deadline, and it’s why he’s listed in our trade block list when some other players in this article are not. But ultimately, I just don’t get a gut feeling that he’s going to be dealt.
The case for trading Hall is easy to articulate. He’s in the final year of his rookie contract and the Jets have made no moves to extend him. That’s in stark contrast to his fellow draft classmates like Garrett Wilson and CB Sauce Gardner who signed monster deals this summer. Not only that, there’s been a clear difference in how the team talks about Wilson and Gardner vs Hall.
“I’m not going to speculate on Breece, but I think it’s very important we signed the other two guys,” Jets owner Woody Johnson said at the owners meetings last week when asked about Hall’s future in New York. “Yeah, they’re great talents and I’ve been around them for a while and they’re way up there.”
The Jets have two other running backs they’ve talked up consistently this year in Braelon Allen and Isaiah Davis, both of whom were drafted in 2024, so there’s some dot-connecting about their willingness to let Hall walk and roll with the young guys. Running backs have had a resurgence but the position is still overall viewed as fungible compared to others, particularly for rebuilding teams which the Jets have proven they still are with their winless start to the season. There’s some logic in flipping Hall for a pick and rolling with the younger, cheaper options while the rebuild continues.
However, here’s why I don’t think the Jets will trade Hall — and why it would be a mistake if they did. For starters, he’s just good. He hasn’t crossed 1,000 yards rushing in a season yet but that’s nitpicking. Hall overcame an ACL injury that cut short a promising rookie year and put up almost 3,000 yards from scrimmage and 17 touchdowns in 2023 and 2024 when the Jets offense was offensive more often than not. He’s got a blend of speed, power and vision that make him a threat to score whenever he touches the ball, either as a runner or receiver.
The Jets know Hall is one of their best players, too, or at least they should. For all the hype the team gave Allen and Davis, Hall has taken the lion’s share of snaps and touches, even when Allen was healthy. Speaking of Allen, the second-year back is sidelined with a knee injury right now and might not make it back until the last few games, if at all. If the Jets traded Hall, that would leave them perilously thin in the backfield.
Even in a rebuilding year, HC Aaron Glenn needs wins to build credibility, both in the locker room and the media. There’s already some hot seat talk around Glenn thanks to the 0-7 start, even though he was highly regarded as a candidate last winter, even though he has personal connections to the franchise and even though the Jets would take a massive reputation hit by moving on from him too quickly.
Trading Hall doesn’t help the Jets win games now, and Glenn seems to realize that judging from how he’s backed the young running back’s standing in New York whenever the trade rumors get too hot. The Jets are also fresh off watching their cross-town rivals, the Giants, let a running back in his prime walk only to go on to great heights nearby. Hall doesn’t turn 25 years old until next year and the Jets can use the franchise tag, either as a temporary solution or to work toward a long-term extension.
Bottom line, it would be a mistake for them to give up on Hall. One I don’t think they’re going to make.
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