The 2025 NFL trade deadline was more wild than most, with a flurry of activity on Tuesday. Added to the deals made in recent days, there was a lot of movement on rosters. While we’re sure every team that made a trade thinks they were winners in the deal, the reality is that some situations are better than others. That’s especially true for fantasy football purposes. So, which deals are going to raise fantasy stocks, and which are tanking value? We’re looking at the fantasy winners and losers as the dust settles from one of the more active NFL trade deadlines in recent history.
2025 NFL Trade Deadline Fantasy Winners
Adonai Mitchell, WR (Jets)
The Colts drafted Adonai Mitchell with a second round pick just last season. I was high on Mitchell through the draft process, but Indy never felt like a great fit. Sure, Mitchell can and should be a deep weapon. But the Colts already had Alec Pierce, whose target share is increasing seemingly by the week. The uptick in looks has largely come at the expense of Mitchell, who has seen both his target and snap shares decrease markedly this season. In New York, Mitchell gets a chance to establish himself as a starter in two receiver sets and could be a nice complement to Garrett Wilson.
Jakobi Meyers, WR (Jaguars)
Jakobi Meyers asked out of Las Vegas back in August. The Raiders initially denied his trade request, but three months later, Meyers gets his wish. He’s now headed to Jacksonville to offer Trevor Lawrence and company some short-term relief. With Travis Hunter on injured reserve and Brian Thomas, Jr., Dyami Brown, and Tim Patrick all banged-up, the Jaguars were down to Parker Washington and Austin Trammell as healthy wideout options. I’m not as worried as some about Meyers’s fit once everyone’s healthy. Perhaps Liam Coen can turn him into Chris Godwin-lite. Before Godwin’s injury last season, Tampa Bay used 11 personnel over 75% of the time. Meyers can fit on the field with Thomas, Hunter, and Brenton Strange. He and Hunter can both play the Z or in the slot. And a happy Meyers should put up more than the 7.4 half-PPR points he’s given you this year.
Rashid Shaheed, WR (Seahawks) (and Sam Darnold)
Just when we all thought Tory Horton was going to be a thing, the Seahawks went and brought in Rashid Shaheed. I’m not putting Horton as a loser per se, as he wasn’t giving you a ton in fantasy anyway. (I still love him in Dynasty.) But Shaheed goes from an offense ranked 29th in scoring and 22nd in passing yards per game, to one ranked seventh in scoring and fourth in yards per game. That makes him a winner. Shaheed should offer a nicer complement to Jaxson Smith-Njigba than the husk of Cooper Kupp. He’s a good receiver and the deep threat the Seahawks had hoped Marquez Valdes-Scantling would be. Shaheed is still his team’s WR2, but it’s a much better passing team on which he finds himself.
Sam Darnold, meanwhile, has looked- dare we say it- good in Klint Kubiak’s offense. The threat of Shaheed over the top should open things up in the intermediate for JSN, and underneath for Horton and tight end Elijah Arroyo (and Kupp). Darnold already ranks among the league leaders in pass completion percentage. Shaheed could blow this whole thing open. That’s why I’m ranking Darnold as a secondary winner of the 2025 NFL trade deadline.
The Los Angeles Chargers (all of them)
The Chargers filled their biggest immediate need by trading for Saints’ offensive lineman Trevor Penning. And they didn’t follow through on all the pre-deadline scuttlebutt about bringing in a running back. The line help should speak for itself after the injuries to starting tackles Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt. Any help on an offensive line ranked just 27th in the league by PFF will be a positive for Justin Herbert as well as for the running game. Herbert’s already giving you his best fantasy season since 2021. Shoring up the line was imperative.
As for that run game, Vidal now is cemented as the unquestioned starter in the backfield until Omarion Hampton returns. Reports this week are that Los Angeles won’t open Hampton’s practice window until after the Week 12 bye. That means at least two more weeks of Vidal as the primary back. I’m not worried about Jarret Patterson, but I would’ve been worried about, say, a Breece Hall. Vidal’s been boom-or-bust in fantasy, but at least now you’re assured of his place in the pecking order.
The Philadelphia Eagles
Do I even need to cover this? Why the league continues to make deals with Howie Roseman baffles me. No, John Metchie isn’t going to move the needle. But the rich got richer.
2025 NFL Trade Deadline Fantasy Losers
Breece Hall, RB (Jets)
Speaking of Breece Hall, he leads the loser list. As Cris Collinsworth would say, “Now here’s a guy…” who could’ve (and maybe should’ve) been moved to a contender, who now finds himself in limbo. He’s a running back approaching his second contract stuck on a team in a rebuild. With all the assets the Jets hoarded at the deadline (and with Isaiah Davis and still-young Braelon Allen on the roster,) it’s almost inconceivable that the Jets didn’t move Hall. While real life isn’t Madden, he still should’ve been able to help a contender (like the Chiefs?) immediately. That would set him up nicely to negotiate that second contract. As is, he’s stuck on an offense that will continue to pound him into opponents’ defensive lines with no real reward to show for it.
Chris Olave, WR (Saints)
Another player who could have found himself in much better circumstances at the NFL trade deadline- but didn’t- is Chris Olave. Olave got to watch Shaheed head west and now is a WR1 on a team with a gaggle of developmental quarterbacks and no one to draw coverage. Brandin Cooks is 137 years old. Devaughn Vele is, well, Devaughn Vele. Olave is second in the league in targets. The good news is, that should continue. But on a team with the fourth-fewest passing touchdowns in the league ranking 31st in Red Zone touchdown percentage, the targets he does catch may not be worth a whole bunch. That’s frustrating for a player of Olave’s caliber, to be sure.
Adonai Mitchell, WR (Jets)
Wait, didn’t we have Mitchell as an NFL trade deadline winner? Yes. Yes, we did. But Mitchell was traded to the New York Jets. While the fit is there in theory, there’s not a whole lot else to like about the offense of which he’s now a part. The Jets are last in the league in passing yards, both overall and per game. They rank in the bottom six in attempts, completions, touchdowns, yards per attempt, yards per completion, and expected points added. Mitchell’s playing time and usage should increase, but he’s on a much worse offense now and for the foreseeable future. Blech.
Aaron Rodgers, QB (Steelers)
Well, it was a weird marriage from the beginning. Aaron Rodgers has never been one to target tight ends with any kind of volume. Arthur Smith believes every player on the field should be a tight end. Only the Cardinals, Browns, and Cowboys have targeted the tight end more than the Steelers this season. And only Arizona and Cleveland have targeted them more on a per game basis. Rodgers has 17 touchdowns, good for third in the league. But seven of those have gone to tight ends, and they’re spread between four different players.
Steelers’ WR1 DK Metcalf has performed passably well, but Calvin Austin III, Roman Wilson, and Ben Skowronek just ain’t cuttin’ it across from him. This is the best Rodgers has looked since his back-to-back MVP seasons in Green Bay. The Steelers needed to add help in the wide receiver room to let him (and Metcalf, for that matter) truly shine. Instead, they stood pat while other teams made moves at the position. Rodgers will have to continue to make due with a slew of TE2-type players, when all he really needed was a single WR2. That means he and his fantasy managers won’t be able to fully reap the benefits of a very favorable strength of schedule for fantasy quarterbacks over the remainder of the season.