The NFL Trade deadline came and went and with teams so willing to deal, we thought it would be good to go over what’s been done and how that affects the teams involved. Some players like Kareem Hunt, Brandin Cooks, and Elijah Moore will remain with their current teams until the end of the 2022 season.
We already covered the Christian McCaffrey trade at length when it happened. Now we’re going to go over the rest of the big trades that will impact the fantasy landscape for 2022 and 2023.
The Chicago Bears traded LB Roquan Smith to the Baltimore Ravens and DE Robert Quinn to the Philadelphia Eagles.
While it’s not a fantasy centric trade per se, the Ravens defense just got a big boost. They value linebackers and now paired with Patrick Queen, the Ravens’ second line of defense just got harder to run against. The Ravens were already 5th in the league in rushing defense and even if Smith is a rotational player at the beginning this move strengthens them.
For the Bears, they are getting rid of a player who is not going to sign with them in the offseason. So they get A.J. Klein, a second-round pick and a fifth-rounder in next year’s draft is a lot more than the compensatory pick they would get if they let him walk. In the short run though, he was a playmaker for them. Perhaps not the leader of the defense they were hoping for, but he would have been a good piece.
Before this trade, the Bears sent pass rusher Robert Quinn to the Eagles, which only makes an already good defense stronger. This significantly downgrades the Bears defense, which had been keeping scores low enough to be competitive while the offense comes around. Forget all that. The Bears are all-in on building the future. With nine draft picks so far and 100 million under the salary cap, get ready for a very different Bears team in 2023.
Fallout:
• Stock on Chicago Bears DST goes way down.
• Stock on Philadelphia Eagles DST goes up slightly.
• Stock on Baltimore Ravens DST goes up slightly.
