6 Best NFL Trade Deadline Deals Of Past Decade

LB Kyle Van Noy

Year: 2016

To: Patriots

From: Lions

For: 2017 sixth-round pick (Patriots got Lions’ seventh-round pick).

Kyle Van Noy was the Detroit Lions‘ second-round pick in the 2014 draft. The BYU product spent his first two NFL seasons in Detroit, earning his keep on special teams before finally getting a chance to start in 2016. Seven games into the ‘16 season, the Lions traded him to the Patriots for an exchange of late-round picks.

Van Noy started 45 games for Bill Belichick’s team over the next four years and appeared in three straight Super Bowls for the Patriots, including their 2016 and 2018 title teams. Van Noy was the ultimate bargain, a key member of the Pats’ defense who cost the team a grand total of $14 million over four years.

In 2019, Van Noy’s fourth season with the Patriots, the team won its 11th straight AFC East title, finishing 12-4. Van Noy had a career-high 6.5 sacks and 15 quarterback hits to go with seven tackles for losses.

He finally cashed in on his success after the ’19 season, signing a four-year, $51 million deal with the Dolphins that included $30 million in guaranteed money.  Despite having one of his best seasons in South Florida, he was released by the Dolphins after the season and re-signed with the Patriots, where he started eight games and played more than 800 snaps in 2021.

RB Christian McCaffrey

Year: 2022

To: 49ers

From: Panthers

For: Second-, third- and fourth-round picks in 2023 and a fourth-round pick in 2024.

The eighth overall pick in the 2017 draft, Christian McCaffrey is one of the most versatile running backs in the league. He had had back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons in 2018 and 2019 and also caught 100-plus passes in both of those years. His 2,392 yards from scrimmage in 2019 were the most in the league.

But he spent much of the 2020-2021 seasons hurt. He missed 13 games in 2020 with three different injuries (ankle, AC shoulder joint, glute) and missed nine more in 1021 with hamstring and ankle injuries.

He bounced back in 2022 and played in the first seven games for the Panthers, averaging 112 yards from scrimmage per game. But the Carolina Panthers were a dumpster fire. The short-and-not-so-sweet Matt Rhule era had been a disaster. The team finished 5-11 in ’20 and 5-12 in ’21. When they lost four of their first five in ’22, owner David Tepper gave Rhule the hook and began looking to sell off players and stockpile draft picks for a rebuild.

They had signed McCaffrey to a four-year, $60 million extension in 2020. But given his contract, injury history and position, and the likelihood that even under the best of circumstances, the Panthers probably weren’t going to be very good for another two or three years, the team put a big fat For Sale sign on his back.

They initially wanted multiple first-round picks for McCaffrey. But his aforementioned injury history and the league-wide devaluing of running backs made that unrealistic. The San Francisco 49ers’ offer was the best one they got, and they took it.

McCaffrey was more valuable in Kyle Shanahan’s offense than a lot of other offenses, which is why general manager John Lynch made the deal. Just three days after joining the 49ers, McCaffrey played 23 snaps in a 44-23 loss to the Chiefs, rushing for 38 yards on eight carries and catching two passes for another 24 yards.

That would be the last regular-season game the 49ers would lose last season. They rattled off 10 straight wins and finished 13-4. McCaffrey averaged 115 yards from scrimmage per game in those 10 wins and had 10 rushing and receiving touchdowns.

He rushed for 119 yards in the 49ers’ 41-23 wildcard win over Seattle and had six catches and a rushing touchdown in their 19-12 divisional-round win over the Cowboys. The Niners’ Super Bowl hopes came to a crashing end in the NFC Championship Game against the Eagles, however, when they lost their starting quarterback, Brock Purdy, and his backup, Josh Johnson, to injuries. McCaffrey, who rushed for 84 yards in the loss, actually ended up playing quarterback in the game, though he threw just one pass.

McCaffrey has rushed for a league-high 598 yards and eight touchdowns in the Niners’ 5-2 start this season. He’s also averaging 8.8 yards per catch and is second to the Dolphins’ Tyreek Hill in yards from scrimmage (826).

LB Roquan Smith

Year: 2022

To: Ravens

From: Bears

For: second- and fifth-round picks in 2023 and LB A.J. Klein.

The Bears went against the grain last year and hired a head coach with a defensive background (Matt Eberflus) and then got rid of probably his best defensive player, Roquan Smith. But Smith was in the option year of his rookie contract, and the Bears were a going-nowhere team with many holes.

Smith started nine games for the Baltimore Ravens after the trade last season and helped them make the playoffs. He had 86 tackles – seven for losses – and two sacks. The Ravens finished third in the league in points allowed (18.5 per game), third against the run (92.1 yards per game) and allowed just 20 touchdown passes. 

But playing without injured quarterback Lamar Jackson, the Ravens were beaten in the playoffs by the Bengals, 24-17. The consolation prizes for Smith were his first first-team All-Pro nod and a five-year, $100 million contract extension.

In seven starts this season, Smith has helped the Ravens defense hold opponents to a league-best 13.9 points per game and 5.4 yards per pass attempt. Smith has a team-high 71 tackles.

WR Amari Cooper

Year: 2018

To: Cowboys

From: Raiders

For: first-round pick in 2019.

Raiders owner Mark Davis, whose team had been to the playoffs just once in the previous 15 years, lured Jon Gruden out of the broadcast booth and back into coaching in 2018 with a 10-year, $100 million contract. After a 1-5 start made it evident the Raiders wouldn’t be making it to the Super Bowl in the immediate future, Gruden and his general manager, Mike Mayock, looked to add draft picks.

One of their biggest trade pieces was Amari Cooper, the talented fourth-year playmaker out of Alabama who had 18 touchdown catches in his first three NFL seasons. So, when the Cowboys offered a first-round pick for him, they sent the former first-rounder to Dallas.

The Dallas Cowboys had missed the playoffs the previous year and hadn’t had a 1,000-yard receiver since Dez Bryant in 2014. Cooper started nine games for the Cowboys after the trade and caught 53 passes for 725 yards and six touchdowns, helping them win 10 games and get back to the playoffs.

The following year, Cooper recorded the fourth 1,000-yard receiving season of his career, averaged 15.1 yards per catch and had eight touchdowns. But the Cowboys stumbled to an 8-8 record that got head coach Jason Garrett fired.

Garrett was replaced by Mike McCarthy, and Cooper had a career-high 92 catches to go with his fifth 1,000-yard receiving season in ‘20. But the Cowboys won just six games and missed the playoffs for the second straight year.

In 2021, Cooper had eight touchdown catches as the Cowboys finished 12-5 and won the NFC East for the first time in three years. But they were quickly eliminated from the playoffs, losing to the 49ers, 23-17, in the wildcard round. Cooper had six catches for 64 yards and a touchdown in the loss.

A couple of months later, the Cowboys traded Cooper to the Cleveland Browns for a fifth-round pick and a swap of sixth-rounders.

QB Jimmy Garoppolo

Year: 2017

To: 49ers

From: Patriots

For: a 2018 second-round pick.

Finding a quarterback clearly was John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan’s No. 1 priority when they arrived in San Francisco in 2017. The 49ers had won just two games the previous season. They had finished 27th in scoring and averaged fewer passing yards than any team in the league in 2016. 

They had journeyman Brian Hoyer and took Iowa’s C.J. Beathard in the third round of the draft that spring. They liked Beathard but knew deep down he wouldn’t be the long-term answer. They had talked about trying to sign Washington’s Kirk Cousins when he became a free agent after the season. But they ended up trading for Jimmy Garoppolo.

Garoppolo, a 2014 second-round pick out of Eastern Illinois, had spent the previous three-plus seasons as the heir apparent to Tom Brady in New England. But when it became clear that the soon-to-be-40-year-old Brady wasn’t planning on retiring any time soon, Garoppolo went from quarterback-in-waiting to how much would you give us for him?

Lynch and Shanahan ended up giving the Patriots a second-round pick for Garoppolo. He started the last five games of the 2017 season for the Niners and played pretty well. He completed 67.4 percent of his passes, and the Niners won all five of his starts as they improved to 6-10.

Garoppolo tore his ACL early in the 2018 season and played in just three games. But he returned the next season and led the Niners to a 13-3 record and a Super Bowl appearance. Garoppolo threw 27 touchdown passes, completed nearly 70 percent of his attempts and averaged 8.4 yards per attempt.

Garoppolo missed eight games in 2020 with an ankle injury, and the 49ers won just six games. But he returned and started 15 games in ’21 as San Francisco returned to the NFC Championship Game. Last year, his season was cut short in early December when he broke his ankle in a game against Miami.

Paul Domowitch covered the Eagles and the NFL for the Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia Inquirer for four decades. You can follow him on Twitter at @pdomo.