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NFL Trade Deadline: Why don't more teams move players?

Former NFL executive Andrew Brandt discusses why the NFL trade deadline doesn't include more than a few small deals.

Al Messerschmidt

Whereas the NBA and MLB have trade deadlines that more often than not include one or two major headlines, the NFL trade deadline rarely produces more than a peep in the news cycle. ESPN's Andrew Brandt, once an NFL executive, delved into why that's the case.

As a sport, football is more about schemes and pieces that fit into the puzzle as a whole, Brandt says. Not only is it hard to find players that fit each team, but it's difficult to make drastic changes in the midseason. Forcing even talented players into a new scheme where the knowledge and understanding of a playbook is essential is difficult without practice time.

From a front office's standpoint, trading players in the middle of the NFL season is often a sign that a team simply wants a player off of their roster. Do they have an attitude problem? Are they a distraction?

Finally, there are the financial problems with NFL deals, Brandt writes. Contracts that are traded still go toward the former team's salary cap in the following season.