When Does the NFL Trade Deadline Happen and What It Means for Teams?
The NFL trade deadline in 2024 is on Tuesday, November, 5 at 4.p.m. ET. As the deadline fast approaches, speculations about the names to watch and the potential trade fits are gradually creating a buzz.
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The National Football League trade deadline is the mid-season cutoff for any trades between teams. Once the NFL trade deadline passes, the league's 32 franchises are no longer permitted to make trades until a new league year begins in March, after the Super Bowl is hosted in February.
The NFL trade deadline isn't as big as those of its counterparts in the National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball (MLB) or the National Hockey League (NHL). However, in recent years it has catapulted to higher levels, after years of being an afterthought.
While trades can't be completed during the early stages of the offseason, teams are allowed to agree to deals in principle during that period. They don't become official until the start of the new year when the previous year’s contracts expire.
The 2023 season witnessed a whopping 15 trades being made ahead of deadline day. This made it one of the most active NFL trade deadlines in recent memory.
This proves a change in trend over the past decade or so. Teams are more willing to ship off players at or near the deadline, usually when they understand their season is going nowhere as it provides the best chance to grab some future draft picks that come in handy during the NFL draft.
When is the 2024 NFL trade deadline?
The 2024 NFL trade deadline is at 4 p.m. Eastern Time Zone (ET) on Tuesday, November 5th. This season will see the deadline follow match week nine NFL games after the NFL franchise owners approved an amendment to push the deadline.
Originally, the deadline was slated to fall on the Tuesday that follows match week eight. In the 2021 season, the NFL adopted a 17-game schedule, but the trade deadline remained unchanged, despite the elongated season. However, the amended 2024 rule submitted by the Pittsburg Steelers placed the deadline in a more centralized position on the timetable.
A myriad of factors makes the NFL trade deadline subtler compared to other sports. Aspects such as salary caps, compensatory picks, contracts, and their early date in the season make it less noticeable. Nonetheless, the league is opposed to driving the deadline further, for fear of making the NFL less competitive.
NFL fans and practitioners can track all in-season trades via the NFL trade deadline tracker. This is an annual landing page that lists every trade made during a given season.
Acquiring players after the NFL trade deadline
The only way for NFL teams to acquire new players after the trade deadline is via free agency or through the waiver wire.
In the NFL, a waiver wire is a system that renders player contracts or a franchise’s NFL rights to a player flexible, by making them available to other franchises in the league. When a franchise waives a player, the rest of the 32 franchises are open to file a claim, seeking to obtain him. Alternatively, they can waive their chance to get him onboard.
FAQs
The most resonant deal in NFL trade deadline history occurred on Oct. 13, 1989, when the Dallas Cowboys traded superstar running back Herschel Walker to the Minnesota Vikings.
Coincidentally, this is also the largest trade in league history. The Cowboys traded Walker and four draft picks, the highest of which were two third-round picks, to the Vikings in exchange for five veteran players and eight draft picks, including three consecutive seasons of first- and second-round draft selections.
Ian Mugo Wanyeki is based in Nairobi, Kenya. He is a sports enthusiast with vast knowledge of different sport disciplines. Ian is a graduate with a Bachelor’s of Science degree from Kenyatta University. He is a Kenyan journalist who’s worked as a sports analyst at Covenant Television Network, as a sports reporter at NTV and as a Sports Correspondent/contributor at Quartz Africa.