Redskins’ Williams ends his season-long holdout
Trent Williams stayed put, as did Josh Norman and Le’Veon Bell. Jamal Adams, Melvin Gordon and Patrick Peterson aren’t going anywhere, either.
The NFL trade deadline was a dud this year but only because teams didn’t wait for the cutoff to swap draft picks and established stars, something they’d been doing since August.
The big news Tuesday was Williams returning to the Washington Redskins. A person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press that the left tackle ended his season-long holdout after not getting traded.
During Cleveland’s recent bye week, Browns general manager John Dorsey said he’s spoken with Redskins president Bruce Allen about acquiring Williams. But when asked if there would be a deal, Dorsey said, “it takes two to tango.”
Dorsey, who pulled off a blockbuster trade for Odell Beckham in March, couldn’t get the Redskins to dance, leaving the Browns to solve their left tackle situation in the offseason.
The only big name traded at the deadline was Aqib Talib, but unlike seven years ago when he was dealt from Tampa Bay to New England at midseason, Talib is no longer in his prime or headed to a contender.
The Rams traded the 33-year-old cornerback to Miami along with a fifth-round pick in 2020 for an undisclosed draft choice. But the 12-year veteran is on IR with a rib injury and probably won’t play again this season.
Talib will be an unrestricted free agent this winter after playing out the six-year, $57 million deal he signed with the Broncos, with whom he won the Super Bowl four seasons ago.
That makes this deadline deal akin to the ones seen so often in the NBA when a tanking team absorbs a contract from another team in exchange for draft capital.
The Dolphins (0-7) could keep Talib on IR before letting him walk in free agency, an approach that would allow them to keep piling up losses to fast-track their rebound after this year’s player purge and could also net them a compensatory draft pick.
The Rams (5-3) have traded both of their starting cornerbacks this month and the trade of Talib clears salary cap space for them to sign recently acquired cornerback Jalen Ramsey to a contract extension.
For years, the NFL trade deadline was pretty much the most anticlimactic date on the sport’s calendar, coming and going without general managers parting with any draft picks and coaches relieved at not having to teach newcomers their offensive or defensive schemes on the fly.
Minor midseason deals neither shook up the playoff races nor excited the public.
That all changed two years ago when Bill Belichick called John Lynch and offered him Tom Brady’s backup, Jimmy Garoppolo.