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.”
Andrew Berry confirms they requested the trade deadline be moved back 2 weeks and explains in detail the reasons pic.twitter.com/FQSartsq9t
— Jared Mueller (@JaredKMueller) February 27, 2024
The NFL has always preferred an earlier trade deadline, first making it following Week 6 then moving it back to Week 8 in 2012. However, as Berry explained, the addition of a 17th game means that the deadline now passes before the season is halfway over.
It is not a surprise that the Browns are the team to push this, as last year they lost Deshaun Watson to injury in Week 9, which was after the deadline already passed. While Cleveland signed Joe Flacco for a successful playoff push, the team sure would have benefited from time to explore their options in the trade market.
While football’s trade deadline is usually less exciting compared to other sports, that could change if the league pushes it back to later in the season.
