The NFL offseason is not only a time for teams to improve their roster, but it’s also when the league accepts suggestions for potential rule changes. This year, the Cleveland Browns will be submitting a proposal to make a change regarding the trade deadline.
Browns general manager Andrew Berry told reporters at the NFL combine that Cleveland wants the league to consider pushing back the deadline to a later date. Berry had multiple reasons for making this proposal, including allowing teams more flexibility to build their rosters in-season, allowing the league to maintain “competitive integrity,” and changing the date to fit the fact that there are now 17 games in the regular season.
“Baseball and basketball, they have their trade deadlines at 65 percent of games played, hockey’s at 78 percent, currently we’re at 45 percent,” Berry said, via SB Nation’s Jared Mueller. “Our proposal would move it to about 55 percent of games played, and oh-by-the-way, over the last 10 years, the earliest a team has been eliminated from postseason consideration has been Week 11.”
