NFL trade deadline 2023: Which teams should make deals?

Week 8 is the last set of NFL games before Tuesday’s trade deadline (4 p.m. ET), which means it’s time for the organizations that were waffling on their plans to make up their minds. There’s no more time to be hopeful about disappointing players breaking through, no more wins or losses to provide any sort of clarity or direction and no more games to identify strengths and weaknesses.

For some teams, Sunday might have been the final straw. The difference between winning and losing this weekend might steer those that were going to hold on to their players to make deals or vice versa. Other teams still might not be sure about what they should do. Maybe they had already decided they were going to go in one direction, only to have an unexpected win or loss on Sunday steer them another way.

Let’s talk about those teams in the middle, the ones that don’t have a clear answer for whether they should be adding players to their roster at the trade deadline or subtracting talent in the hopes of accruing draft capital. I might have an idea of which way they should go, which isn’t always in line with what I think they’ll actually do come Tuesday. Some should be trading away talent and will go in the opposite direction; others might want to both add or subtract veteran players in the right move.

I’ll run through those teams, but first, let’s hit the rest of the league and the teams that should obviously be going in one direction or the other. These organizations might or might not actually make deals for veterans over the next two days, but if they do make a move, it should be to add a player or two to their 53-man roster.

Jump to a team with questions:
Browns | Bucs | Chargers
Commanders | Falcons | Jets
Rams | Saints | Steelers
Texans | Titans | Vikings

Teams that clearly should add at the deadline

49ers, Bengals, Bills, Chiefs, Cowboys, Dolphins, Eagles, Jaguars, Lions, Ravens, Seahawks