NFL trades could undergo a significant change in 2024.
Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry has revealed he will be proposing to have the trade deadline pushed back.
The current deadline always falls on the first Tuesday after Week 8 and was set that way in order to have it at the midway point of a 16-game schedule. However, Berry reckons it should be extended now that the schedule has been inflated to 17 games.
“We want to retroactively correct the fact that the trade deadline never moved when the season expanded to 17 games,” he told reporters in an interview at the NFL Scouting Combine on Tuesday. “If, at some point in the future, the regular season expands to 18 games, we wanted to be proactive in terms of the positioning for the trade deadline.”
Berry would like to see the deadline lengthened by an additional two weeks.
If approved, such a move would leave teams with a better scope in terms of whether they are buyers or sellers as their records would indicate how open they would be to trading a player.
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A 3-4 team probably wouldn’t be keen on a fire sale in Week 8 but, should they lose their next two games, they would likely be willing to listen to offers.
“If you look at us compared to the other major sports leagues,” Berry added. “If you look at their seasons by calendar days or games played – baseball and basketball, they have their trade deadline at 65% of their games played. Hockey is at 78%. Currently, we’re at 45%. Our proposal would move it to about 55% of the games played.”
Once the proposal is officially submitted, it could be voted on at the next league meeting in late March.
