Heading into November 3rd’s NFL trade deadline, numerous underperforming teams seemed ripe for the picking. The Cincinnati Bengals seemed to be at the top of that list, with disastrous back-to-back losses to the lowly Jets and Bears all but ending their postseason hopes already. And don’t just take our word for it, take that of online odds providers.

Having been an even-money shot to end their two-year playoff drought in preseason, the latest Bovada football odds now make Cincy a whopping +800 outsider. Such a miserable outlook could have triggered a fire sale, but the Bengals ultimately clung on to the likes of Trey Hendrickson, a sack leader who could now leave in the summer for absolutely nothing.

But the Ohio outfit wasn’t the only one weighing up a potential fire sale. Both the Jets and the Miami Dolphins, AFC East rivals that have three combined wins between them this term, were also on the brink of triggering a full reset. But did either of them do it?

And if they did, where did their prized assets go? Let’s take a look at the biggest done deals finalized on the 2025 NFL trade deadline.

Colts Bet the House on Sauce Gardner

In a move that left insiders and fans slack-jawed, the Indianapolis Colts didn’t just knock on the door of Super Bowl contention—they kicked it off its hinges. The Jets, formally ushering in their era of uncertainty, shipped generational corner Sauce Gardner to Indy for a king’s ransom: first-rounders in 2026 and 2027 and athletic receiver Adonai Mitchell.

This isn’t just another “win-now” Hail Mary. Gardner, at just 25 and fresh off a $120 million extension, offers numbers that qualify as science fiction: opposing quarterbacks have completed just 48.1% of passes in his coverage since his rookie debut. Slide him into a Colts defense that already boasted top-10 efficiency, and the result is thunderous—a secondary so formidable, even battle-seasoned offensive coordinators in Kansas City and Houston must redraw their playbooks overnight.

With Gardner, Charvarius Ward, and Kenny Moore II locking down the back end, Indianapolis didn’t just nudge their Super Bowl odds—they annihilated their ceiling.

For the Jets, pain is the price of progress. Five first-round picks in hand over the next two years, the Big Apple now sits atop the NFL’s draft capital leaderboard. In a league obsessed with flexibility, this is blank-check territory—a shot to fix the quarterback, restock the defense, and reboot a stagnant franchise all in one fell swoop. While sending away a player of Gardner’s caliber is never popular, especially after locking him in as a supposed pillar, it might be the archetype for how to execute a true reset in a copycat league.

Quinnen Williams Arrives in Dallas

There is brash, and then there is Dallas. With playoff hopes wobbling after a bitter loss to a Jacoby Brissett-powered Arizona Cardinals on Monday Night Football and memories of being gashed at the line of scrimmage still raw, Jerry Jones did what Jerry Jones does—he wrote a headline that doubled as a tactical masterstroke. By acquiring the three-time Pro Bowl wrecking ball Quinnen Williams, Dallas swapped uncertainty for a battering ram of proven disruption.

Let’s talk scale: Williams, whose 28 sacks and 83 pressures since 2021 make him the rare DT who changes every opponent’s math. Opposing OCs now face a weekly

Sophie’s Choice: chip away and run the risk of Williams pulverizing the pocket, or head in the opposite direction.

The cost? Mazi Smith—an intriguing but inconsistent former first-rounder—and precious draft assets. For Dallas, this is a naked play for today—salary cap consequences and draft-day regrets can wait until February. For the Jets, it’s more fuel—more picks, more flexibility, and another notch in the grand reimagining of Gang Green’s identity.

Philadelphia’s Defensive Coup

It wouldn’t be a modern NFL trade deadline without Howie Roseman pirouetting through a staging of front office wizardry. Sensing opportunity in Miami’s ledger sheets, Roseman snagged Jaelan Phillips, a pass-rusher with the kind of bend and explosion that makes right tackles wake up in a cold sweat. Phillips, pre-injury, flashed true double-digit sack potential and—now healthy—slots into an Eagles front desperate for dynamism.

But Roseman’s appetite wasn’t sated. Mere hours later, he seized Jaire Alexander—the league’s most respected man-to-man artist over the last half-decade—from Baltimore for, by any metric, a song: a 2026 sixth and a 2027 seventh. Alexander’s 44.8% completion rate when targeted stands as a testament to his surgical anticipation and unrelenting competitiveness. With Alexander opposite Darius Slay and Phillips bolstering the pass rush, the champs have restyled themselves into a unit capable of recreating the suffocating inertia that led them to a Super Bowl demolition of the three- peat-seeking Chiefs back in February.

Here’s the punchline: the Eagles, already well clear at the top of the NFC East, didn’t surrender a starting asset or future first. Instead, Roseman weaponized the margin—the deep mid-round capital, the cap flexibility, the reputation for calculated aggression. Now. Philly enters the season’s back half with a defense that opponents can only prepare for in theory, not practice.

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