Who are the Las Vegas Raiders players who should have been traded at the 2023 NFL trade deadline? How about Jimmy Garoppolo, Josh Jacobs, Hunter Renfrow, Davante Adams, and basically everyone not named Maxx Crosby?
Ok, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but for a team that was just hours away from firing head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler, not making at least a few deals to stock the draft-pick cupboards for the next regime was not a smart move. That said, when was the last time Raiders owner Mark Davis made a “smart move” for his team?
The 2023 NFL deadline was an active one by league standards, with eight deals going down on deadline day, including trades for big names like Chase Young, Leonard Williams, and Rasul Douglas.
However, the Raiders didn’t make any trades.
Outside of Crosby, who is only 26 and one of the best defensive players in the league, every Raiders player should have been on the table.
Now, this isn’t Madden, so presumably, Las Vegas couldn’t can’t just trade all its players for future first-round picks (you know you do it!). Still, there were some deals that seemed obvious, and the team could have pulled off.
Hunter Renfrow to the Buffalo Bills
Here’s the math on this. The Bills desperately need a reliable slot receiver. In 2021, Hunter Renfrow was one of the best slot receivers in the league. McDaniels has ruined Renfrow in the past two seasons. Let’s make a deal!
Buffalo sent a 2024 third-round pick to the Green Bay Packers for cornerback Rasul Douglas and a 2024 fifth-round pick. It seems safe to reason that the Bills would have made a similar deal for Renfrow.
Moving up from the fifth to the third round in the upcoming NFL draft would have been a nice way to start for the next Raiders GM. Plus, with Renfrow playing just 38% of the team’s snaps this season anyway, the offense really wouldn’t have missed him.
Josh Jacobs to the Baltimore Ravens
The Josh Jacobs contract situation was a disaster this offseason, and the rust on last year’s leading rusher is a big reason the Raiders stink this season. To get the RB back in the fold at the end of training camp, Dave Ziegler gave Jacobs a one-year deal.
So, we’re just a few months away from all the Jacobs drama starting all over again.
A Raiders trade with the Baltimore Ravens would make a lot of sense here. Lamar Jackson needs more help in the backfield if the team is truly going to challenge for the Super Bowl, and Jacobs is starting to look like his 2022 self as the season goes along.
Running back value is a hot topic in the NFL these days, but whether they are worth big money and high draft picks or not in the offseason, you can’t argue that their value doesn’t go up at the NFL trade deadline when there is no other way to acquire high-end talent.
Could the Raiders have gotten a fourth or maybe even a third-round swap from the Ravens for Jacobs? If they had a GM who wasn’t about to be fired nine hours later I bet they could have.
Jimmy Garoppolo to the Vikings
After losing Kirk Cousins for the season, the Minnesota Vikings went and got quarterback Joshua Dobbs from the Arizona Cardinals for a conditional sixth-seventh-round pick swap. If Dobbs plays a certain amount, the pick becomes one round better.
The Raiders couldn’t have done slightly better than that for Jimmy Garoppolo?
Getting a fifth or sixth-round pick for Jimmy G would have been great in order to get out from his money and the expectation of playing he would bring next season. You then hand the reigns to Aidan O’Connell for the rest of the season — which it seems like they will do anyway — and any potential Garoppolo drama is over.
Davante Adams to literally anyone
Davante Adams is still one of (if not) the best WRs in the game today if he had a good quarterback and offensive scheme. While some teams at the bottom of the league would present the same scenario the Raiders do, therefore not being a good fit, basically, any NFL team would love to have Adams on their roster.
It’s hard to believe that any contending team would have hung up the phone at the NFL trade deadline if Ziegler called and offered them Adams for a second-round pick. And if that is the case, if Ziegler then called the Kansas City Chiefs and said, “Hey, the Bills, Ravens, Bengals, and Jaguars all just offered me a second-round pick for Davante Adams. Want to give me your first?” The Chiefs would jump at that, and the Bills, Ravens, Bengals, and Jaguars might, too.
So, in a perfect world, that would bring back extra first, third, fourth, and fifth-round picks while saving over $23 million in the process. Not bad. It stinks for Raiders fans that none of it happened at the 2023 NFL trade deadline.
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