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The craziest proposed NFL trades that never happened

By Kieran Patterson (@DCCYTFootball)

With the news coming out about the Cleveland Browns reportedly turning down the Seattle Seahawks offering up Russell Wilson for the first round pick they used to draft Baker Mayfield, I thought it would be a great idea to look back at other proposed trades that would’ve shaken up the NFL landscape.

How many of these do you remember? If there are any you think are missing, please hit us up over on Twitter @Full10Yards!

Aaron Rodgers to the Oakland Raiders

Back in 2007, Aaron Rodgers was still backing up Brett Farve in Green Bay when the Raiders put Hall of Fame wide receiver Randy Moss on the trade block. Aaron Rodgers for Randy Moss would’ve been a hell of a trade. The reason this trade didn’t go through?

NFL rumors: Packers trading away Aaron Rodgers to Raiders? - nj.com — Matt York / AP

Green Bay wanted a first round pick and Moss for Aaron Rodgers. Moss ended up landing in New England and not only setting multiple records with Tom Brady but going 16-0 in THAT regular season.

Rumours surfacing once again about Aaron Rodgers and whether or not he will start and finish his career at Lambeau Field. Are the Raiders FINALLY gonna get to see A Rod?

Ben Roethlisberger to the Oakland Raiders/St. Louis Rams.

Now this one might be surprising to anyone who doesn’t keep up with the off field stories of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Ben Roethlisberger is far from the perfect teammate; he consistently airs team dirty laundry on his radio show, he thinks he’s the GM and not just a player and struggles to get on with most of his star players.

This isn’t just hearsay though, it’s well documented and this is why I think there’s weight behind this trade. In 2010 it was reported that the Steelers organization was fed up with Big Ben and his behavior that was causing trouble inside the organization and were looking at offers.

The Steelers approached Oakland and offered them Ben and the number 18 pick for the number 8 pick. Oakland said no. They also approached the St. Louis Rams and offered to trade Ben for Sam Bradford who had just completed his rookie year…the Rams said no, and that was that. Big Ben stayed in Pittsburgh and continued to annoy and alienate teammates.

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Dan Marino to the Oakland Raiders

(I mean seriously? I promise this is the last Oakland one…or is it?)

In 1989, the Miami Dolphins had a very average 8-8 season leading them to another year of missing the playoffs. This wasn’t something Don Shula was happy with so they he thought the best course of action would be to change the signal caller, who was legendary quarterback…Dan Marino.

From Dan Marino to Dion Jordan – the Best and Worst of Miami ... — Andy Lyons / Getty

Shula managed to secure a verbal agreement with Raiders Al Davis but last minute the deal fell through, why? Shula got cold feet and upped the asking price for Marino. Twice. The price was too steep, even for Davis. Miami and Marino still never managed to win a Super Bowl.

It’s one of the one things Marino would be remembered for the one of the best quarterbacks to never win a Lombardi.

Eli Manning to the Jacksonville Jaguars

Going into the 2017/2018 season the Jags were really not happy with their Quarterback situation Blake Bortles wasn’t really cutting it.

Eli Manning retirement: Former Giants coach Tom Coughlin, GM Ernie ... — Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

The Jaguars needed a solution so they looked north to New York and set their sights on Eli Manning. The 2 time Super Bowl champion had been playing to put it lightly…terrible, but the Jags liked Manning for his Super Bowl experience and his former coach Tom Coughlin was running the Jacksonville front office.

Why didn’t this happen? Blake had a decent season which killed the interest in the trade from the Jags end. Shame Bortles went back to his usual self next season and the “Sacksonville” era was over before it even got started.

Odell Beckham Jr. to The Los Angeles Rams.

A couple of years before he got shipped out to Cleveland for a 1^st round pick and Jabrill Peppers the Rams showed serious interest in Odell Beckham Jr.

What did the New York Football Giants want for the spectacular wide receiver? They asked the Rams for two 1^st round picks and the Rams only wanted to give them one.

That’s a high price but the Browns eventually paid a similar price giving the Giants a 1^st round pick and a 1^st round player in Peppers. OBJ has yet to shine in Cleveland would the same thing have happened in LA?

Antonio Brown to the Buffalo Bills

Okay, so this did/didn’t happen but everyone (kinda) remembers where they were when this went down. It was reported that the Steelers had agreed to send AB to the Bills

BREAKING: @Steelers closing in on deal to send @AB84 to the @buffalobills.

(via @RapSheet) pic.twitter.com/Etucqhb2Qk
— NFL (@NFL) March 8, 2019

Twitter did it’s thing once it turned out that this wasn’t going to go through. Antonio Brown ended up being traded to the Oakland Raiders (why always Oakland?) but even then, he didn’t see the field in a Raiders Jersey, being “set free” to eventually wind up in New England for a game before unceremoniously leaving the league and trying to return ever since.

The Browns need their “Hollywood Receiver”

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Article by Shaun Blundell – @Shaun_F10Y

A fine effort from the Browns on Sunday Night Primetime was undone by one of the league’s most reliable duos.“Jared Goff complete to Cooper Kupp”, rinse and repeat. It was an all too familiar tale as arguably the league’s best slot receiver had a field day against the depleted Browns secondary, missing all 4 of its assumed starters. The Rams have a fabulous trio of weapons with Brandin Cooks and Robert Woods to compliment the aforementioned Kupp and the Rams have been consistently good on offense since the dawning of the Sean McVay era. Watching the game with my orange and brown tinted lenses I couldn’t help but think to myself “wasn’t this supposed to be what we looked like this season?”

Three weeks in and the Browns have simply stuttered on offense. Short of the opening drive drive of the season against the Titans that provided so much hope and optimism it’s been tough going for Baker and co. Through 3 games the combined stat line for Baker reads 62/109, 805 yards, 3 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. It’s a full 7% drop in terms of his completion percentage from last season and essentially a flip on TD to INT ratio. Whichever way you dress it up, it hasn’t been great. So just what has gone wrong since that season opening drive?

That leads me back to the Goff and Kupp connection. Most quarterbacks develop a favourite target, think Phillip Rivers to Antonio Gates, Peyton Manning to Marvin Harrison, Tom Brady to anyone! That security blanket that is always there when all else fails, the connection to bail the quarterback out when a play breaks down. When it comes to Baker Mayfield the sample size is small, but without doubt his go to guy is Rashard Higgins. When was the last time we saw Higgins effectively on the field? The opening drive of the season.

Higgins was targeted 3 times on that opening drive and caught 2 balls including the big catch of 35 yards to set the Browns up for Dontrel Hilliards rushing score. He has built up a rapport with Baker stretching all the way back to last training camp when he worked exclusively with the number 2 offense. Think back to camp this year, OBJ and Jarvis Landry were effectively wrapped in cotton wool and didn’t play a snap in preseason. Antonio Callaway turned up out of shape and is still serving his 4 game suspension. Damion Ratley spent most of camp injured. The other receivers, Jalen Strong, Ish Hyman, DJ Montgomery, Derrick Willies all either cut, placed on IR or the practice squad.

Baker is having to build chemistry on the fly in a real game environment. I was frustrated at the lack of preseason game time the “starters” received and the early results have vindicated that frustration. There is no denying the obvious talent that OBJ and Jarvis posses but it doesn’t just work overnight and they need complementary pieces to garner some defensive attention away from them as well. The 2 receivers the Browns did add at the end of camp Tawan Taylor and KhaDarel Hodge have been almost exclusively used on special teams.

Image Credit – John Kuntz / cleveland.com

There are obviously other legitimate questions for the Browns to answer. The offensive line, particularly at the tackle position has been poor. The poor play appears to have left Baker with zero trust or confidence in the guys up front and he is now bailing out of clean pockets as he is feeling footsteps that aren’t even there. The tight end position could do with an upgrade, and in my opinion that is regardless of the status of David Njoku. It may be an unpopular opinion but I haven’t seen enough from him into his now 3rd season to convince me he will turn into anything other than an extremely physically gifted athlete.

The playcalling question probably deserves an article all on its own but I will keep it simple. Freddie Kitchens may or may not be the problem, but it is on him to provide the solution. If that means handing duties over to Todd Monken then so be it. His offense in Tampa was certainly not the issue in Florida last year so he shouldn’t be afraid to hand over the reigns. Whoever is calling the plays, I would expect things to get better as the season progresses as everyone adjusts into a new system.

Despite all of this the Browns enter Sunday Night against the Ravens with an opportunity to take the divisional lead, so it certainly isn’t all doom and gloom. This is the last game without the legitimate deep threat that Callaway will provide to the offense (expect Taylor to be cut then) and Higgins has a shot to be back as early as this week, being called at the time of writing this article “day to day”. I’m still holding out hope that Dorsey swings a trade to bring Trent Williams over from the Redskins to sure up the line and who knows maybe talk Gronk out of retirement to come and play tight end?

The last point was obviously in jest but I don’t think the Browns are a million miles away. If Baker can be reunited with his comfort blanket I’m sure we will all feel much better about things. A precise route runner, Higgins has become an extremely valuable part of the wide receiver core, and as the saying goes “you don’t know what you have got until it has gone”.

Full10Lookahead – Week 1

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In a new weekly feature, here are our 10 top things we are most looking forward to this week in the NFL.

-Zeke and destroy-

Ezekiel Elliot, the newly $90m, 6 year contracted running back.

Will his offseason away from the team in Cabo turn in to rustiness and on field lack of rhythm and chemistry with Dak? Probably not, especially seeing as though Tanner Lee was flown out to Cabo for Zeke to get the requisite reps. That being said, it’s been far from ideal for the Dallas Cowboys with contract stories literally in every position group in their team. Dak and Amari Cooper will probably be dealt with next offseason now judging by the other contracts that were settled over the past few weeks but now it’s time for America’s Team to get on the field and put away the Giants.

If they can put all of it behind them, there is Super Bowl calibre team here. Regardless of how well they do this season, surely all eyes are on how Zeke slots back in to the operation of this offence.

-How Charged up is the LA running game-

L.A. Chargers GM Tom Telesco has stuck a marker in the Californian sand with a refusal to negotiate RB Melvin Gordon’s contact until the season is complete. A bold move, but you don’t want such a big distraction as you start a season with QB Philip Rivers in the twilight of his Hall of Fame worthy career.

With Gordon still disgruntled and not reporting this means the powder-blue ball pounders will be Austin Ekeler and Justin Jackson. Ekeler has proved to be a quality plug and play, but the real excitement lies with Jackson and his burst.

The Chargers are a balanced team that are pretty safe locks for a playoff spot, and if Ekeler and Jackson can find early rhythm then they will be saying “Melvin who?” by January.

-Chiefs grabbing Shady-

K.C. head coach Andy Reid helped LeSean McCoy to become a superstar in Philadelphia, and now the two are reunited. Grabbing McCoy, who was unceremoniously cut by the Buffalo Bills, is a move that will be making Chiefs fans scratch their heads.

For fantasy fans they will be doing more that scratching, they will be pulling clumps of hair out. RB Damien Williams proved he can manage the spotlight and is a quality ball-catcher. Darwin Thompson has shown too that he can pound the rock, but now you add in a veteran back who is on the downward spiral.

Reid will reignite McCoy’s career as will being in the same huddle as Patrick Mahomes. So tough to project his immediate impact, but stay tuned Week 1.

-I’ll take a Big Mack-

Khalil Mack was on his way to making Aaron Donald sweat for the Defensive Player of the Year, was it not for a small injury that slowed him down a tad.

Mack was the biggest news of the start of the 2018 season, and twelve months later he has a year of better appreciating his surroundings in Chicago. The Bears defense is the best unit in the NFL, and with tackling machine Roquan Smith by his side Mack is going to be gunning for 20 sacks in 2019.

I can see the Bears v Eagles in the NFC Championship, and pray to the spirit of George Halas that Mack’s outstanding play is not crippled by another double-doink.

-Pats Old Guard try to repeat the trick-

New England will start the defence of their Super Bowl crown with the visit from the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night, and will do so with the oldest roster in the NFL when young players have seemingly never been so valuable.

In todays salary cap age, the ability to keep cost controlled draft picks is seen as a vital way to remain competitive. However, the Patriots have seemed to eschew that school of thought recently. Arguably the only impactful players playing on their rookie deals are running back Sony Michel and guard Joe Thuney, although they will no doubt hope that this years class headlined by messrs Harry and Winovich and one of last years first rounders, tackle Isaiah Wynn, will make an impact following a rookie season curtailed by an Achilles injury sustained in camp.

It seems Bill Belichick is forever zigging while the rest of the league zags, the rest of the league looks to get quicker, stronger and more athletic he is relying on know-how and experience to take them back to the Super Bowl. Even today, surrounded by the electrifying technicolour highlights of Mahomes, Barkley etc few would bet against them doing just that.

-Kliff, Kyler and the air raid offence-

In Glendale on Sunday evening the Arizona Cardinals will try to take their franchises first baby steps back to viability as a contender when they welcome the similarly rebuilding Detroit Lions to the University of Phoenix Stadium.

Attention will certainly be focused on how rookie HC Kliff Kingsbury and no. 1 pick Kyler Murray perform in the first test of the pass-happy, hyperactive Air Raid offence. While its fair to say elements of the scheme have been a staple for many teams over the past few years, the Cards have made it clear they will ride or die with their youngsters for better or worse this year.

With a fresh receiving core including Christian Kirk and rookies Andy Isabella and Keesean Johnson, complemented by old reliable Larry Fitzgerald and star running back David Johnson, hopes are high in the desert that the road back to competitiveness starts here. And if not, it will certainly be fun to watch!

-Rams try to avoid Super Bowl hangover-

Sean McVay will try to pilot his teams path back to the Super Bowl beginning with a cross country trip to Charlotte to face Ron Rivera’s Carolina Panthers. While last years offence was, for large parts of the season unstoppable, they seemed to run out of steam as the season reached its most crucial phase.

Over the season the Rams were the second highest scoring offence in football, only behind the remarkable Chiefs led by MVP Patrick Mahomes, however over the last month of the regular season their PPG decreased by over 10 points capped off by the 3 point performance on the biggest stage at Super Bowl LIII.Young receiver Cooper Kupp went down with an season ending injury and when star running back Todd Gurley was hampered by a knee injury by the latter stages of the season, the Rams overall effectiveness on offence seemed to go with him.

Has the rest of the NFL caught up to Sean McVay’s scheme or will the Rams be back lighting up the scoreboard this year? Any team boasting the talents of reigning DPOY Aaron Donald, Andrew Whitworth, Aqib Talib, Eric Weddle, Jared Goff, Robert Woods etc plus the hopefully back to full health Gurley and Kupp should be challenging in the very competitive NFC.

-OBJ = Odell’s Browns Jersey-

It really wasn’t a dream…..OBJ will be wearing orange and brown to kick of the 2019 NFL campaign.

The sensational trade that shook the NFL back in March has been the standout moment in a summer full of positive vibes out of North Eastern Ohio and at last we get to see the on field product on Sunday. OBJ has been wrapped in cotton wool throughout the offseason, practising sparingly and not seeing any preseason action so all eyes will be on how quickly he establishes a connection with Baker Mayfield.

The Browns host the Titans looking to win a season opener for the first time since 2004, here’s hoping!

-Ring that Bell!-

So Le’Veon Bell didn’t win any additional money from his contract holdout, but did he win by preserving his body?

The running back will see the field for the first time in over 18 months when the Jets open up against the Bills on Sunday in New York. Bell has always had a patient running style but would have been afforded superior line play during his time with the Steelers. Will he be able to transition this style to his new surroundings or will we see him bouncing to the outside more regularly?

Despite plenty of optimism of growth in the second season of Sam Darnold, the Jets may only go as far as Bell can carry them.

-Time for a new Colt hero?-

Jacoby Brissett, what an opportunity you have in front of you.

You may argue he had this chance in 2017 when as the full time starter for the year he led the Colts to a 4-12 record, but don’t underestimate how much better this overall Colts team is now. He will have arguably the best O-line in football in front of him with Quenton Nelson leading the group in his 2nd year. He has a nice array of options in the passing game to throw to and a committee approach at running back should see the Colts very competitive.

Once considered a potential heir to Tom Brady, I’m looking forward to seeing Brissett grasp his chance this time around.

Pick It Apart; Dexter Lawrence

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The Draft is in the books and the dust has settled. But how well did your team do in the first round?

We are taking a look back at every selection in the first round and giving you the lowdown on the pick; Was it a reach? Was it a steal? We’ll tell you and give you the impact for fantasy football….

Pick: 17

Player: Dexter Lawrence

Drafted By: New York Giants

Grade: B

Analysis:

Lawrence was draft a few spots behind teammate Christian Wilkins (13); I wonder if they had a side bet on that. This was the pick in the trade deal with the Browns for OBJ.

Lawrence was ranked the no.2 recruit in his class when coming in to College in 2016 and was a highly sought after DT. That was backed up when being named the 2016 ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year and recorded 4 tackles when winning the National Title vs Alabama for Clemson.

His whole college production was good, but you have to wonder the reasons as to why his production dropped in his Junior year (doesn’t help he missed the playoffs after testing positive for PEDs, a requisite for entering the NFL).

So what does Lawrence bring?

Size, length, power and versatility; his athleticism allows him to fit in a 4-3 or a 3-4 front. His strength will obviously be a run stuffer for the Giants as long as they can rekindle his production from his 1^st year in College. He isn’t going to be a guy that feasts on the flesh of the QB that often judging by his pass rush abilities but he will certainly do a job for the New York Football Giants.

The jury is out as to whether he was worth the pick here and whether he is a 3 down guy in the NFL (and wont have the luxury of having the talent around him like he did in the Clemson D), but he is a guy that will warrant double teams, be a disruptive menace in the gut of the defensive line and is a Gettleman guy in terms of big and strong on the D line.

At the very worst, he is someone that can be built around in the next few years.

Fantasy Football Impact:

Similar to most other teams in the top half of the draft, defences will not be taken for most of these teams in fantasy unless it’s a stream or a deep league.

Lawrence will probably not trouble the top end of scoring in IDP and screams a real life decent player, but not for the stat sheets.

Where Do They Go From Here; NY Giants

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After our divisional season review podcasts, we are now looking to the future and asking where each franchise goes from here. We put ourselves in the chair of being GM or the owner and going over what moves we would make in order to win a Superbowl, make the playoffs or just regain some pride…

Today we take a look at the New York Football Giants.

Don’t forget to check out the NFC East podcast where we talked to Jack Humphrey and got their thoughts on them!

How Did Last Season Go?

Overall, not great from a neutral’s point of views but I guess it depends on whether your ask the pro Eli fans or those against.

The Saquon Barkley pick will be debated until the cows come home. The attempts to beef up the offensive line didn’t work out how they would have liked in terms of being able to run the ball and I don’t think you can say the defence gave it their all 100% of the time. 1-7 before the bye looks awful on paper but a few games (especially the Carolina game) in another year would’ve gone the way of the G Men. An Overtime win vs the Bears was the eyebrow raiser of the schedule and actually went 4-4 after the bye to finish with a 5-11 record, 4^th in the East. Saquon Barkley, The offence was actually 11^th in terms of yardage gained on offence, but that was mainly due to their bottom 10 ranked defence and the Giants generally chasing games. Not a great start for the tenure of new GM Dave Gettleman and HC Pat Shurmur who were under scrutiny from the draft.

Housekeeping

The Giants own the 6^th pick in the first round along with picks 17, 37, 95, 108, 133, 142, 143, 171, 180, 232 and 245. A lot of picks there as some are compensatory picks and some are from the Odell Beckham trade.

Cap wise, they are spending over $20m in to the black hole pocket of Eli Manning and are eating a lot more cap paying for Beckham to be on the Browns. In terms of free cap space, at this moment they have just under $12m.

Outgoings

Odell Beckham, Olivier Vernon both leave New York in trades. Landon Collins was too rich for the blood of New York and is the other notable name out of the door.

Incomings

Jabrill Peppers and Kevin Zeitler (trades) along with Golden Tate, Markus Golden, Antone Bethea also in through the door.

Outlook for Next Year

Their dealings in Tennessee could make or break their offseason and will determine their outlook for 2019 in terms of how successful it was but there will be many giants out there who will feel it is already unsalvageable. There are a wide range of outcomes in the 2019 draft for the Giants so get your popcorn ready if you are a fan of the G Men. There is no doubt that every move they make in the next year or two will be under a big microscope which will always circle back to their stud running back taken at #2 last year. Almost feels like the wait to find out whether that was the right move will take longer than the waiting between season 7 and 8 for Game of Thrones (cant wait by the way…).

On the field, having just re-signed Sterling Shepard to a 4 year, $41m deal (the Patriots were having a sniff), the extra picks gained in their trades has helped to work some big contracts off the books have many Giants protractors of Gettleman quietening down just a smidgen so you could call this a remodelling of the team which will take a few years for it to manifest. This team isn’t built to make a playoff push and could quite easily have a 3^rd top 10 pick in a row come the 2020 draft, where they may strike for their successor to Eli Manning.

That said, it isn’t a particularly strong NFC East with question marks everywhere. Saquon Barkley should continue his early dominance in the league but passing wise, they are not going to pull up any trees and could be quite limited, just like this season. Evan Engram should return to a bit more production as seen in his rookie year unless the Giants are busy adding to their offence in the Draft.

Prediction

Battle for the wooden spoon between them and the Redskins in the East I feel. I think the Giants max out at 6 or 7 wins if everything goes their way. Matchups vs the AFC East and NFC North isn’t the worst combination in the world and also face the Bucs and Cardinals due to their 4^th place finish last season.

Fantasy Football

Eli Manning – is not a fantasy football QB

Saquon Barkley – pretty much the consensus #1 overall pick. PPR monster again this season

Sterling Shepard – 7^th-8^th Round – Low WR2 ceiling

Golden Tate – not too far after Sterling Shepard – WR3 ceiling

Evan Engram – 6-7^th Round – mid TE1 with upside.