Albert Breer on NFL Trade Deadline Winners and Losers | The Story with Rachel Nichols

I'm Rachel Nichols here with Albert Breer. Welcome to the story. Now, Albert, NFL fans were checking their phones nonstop with all of the trade deadline news, and some teams made moves to strengthen their playoff chances. Other teams obviously more focused on building for the future. I want to break down everything that happened yesterday, which teams got better and are any of these moves going to make a real difference down the stretch? So we'll just start with that. What stood out to you the most from the deadline? I'd say Kirk Cousins. It's just so rare that a starting quarterback has moved in the middle of the season that way. And I can't think of, you know, a precedent for what we saw where, you know, you have a guy who's a starting quarterback for a team that's in the playoff hunt in the Raiders. And, you know, now we can talk about how real that is or not. But, you know, they still are very much in the race. And they moved their starting quarterback to another team that is, you know, one of the best teams in all football, you know, through, through nine weeks and that's the Minnesota Vikings. And so it was a unique set of circumstances that created it. You know, obviously the Vikings had the injury to, to, to Kyler Murray and then, you know, Carson Wentz. And this is like the really weird thing, you know, Rachel, I'm talking to people over the course of the last like five, six hours. Like a lot of this happened because of the way the Vikings played on offense on Monday night. And, you know, Carson Wentz, who they thought had a good week of practice, didn't play well. And it was sort of like, we cannot put the rest of these guys in that position. The rest of the guys on offense, the guys who've been playing at a historic level on defense, like we need to give them a better answer. And so the opportunity was there, you know, luckily enough for them to, to go and acquire a quarterback who not only has played at a really high level over the course of his career, but also obviously has a ton of background in Kevin O'Connell's offense, having been his quarterback in 22 and 23. Yesterday, I said it was a win, win, win, win, a win for the Raiders because they were going to transition from Cousins to Mendoza anyway. And this way they got out with rock solid play. And I think they only paid him, you would know this, $650,000 for the year, which relatively for a starting quarterback is a deal. And they get to move Mendoza in. In a way that's just natural, right? It doesn't have to be, oh, Cousins failed. Here's a controversy. We're going to move Mendoza, whatever. And he's probably ready after six months of working with everyone behind the scenes. So that's a win. The Vikings, obviously, big win here for all the reasons you just said about how Cousins fits into their system. But also, look, man, I know Justin Jefferson is a professional, so he's probably not spending last night drinking. But if he had been. And partying up a storm, I wouldn't have blamed him. I mean, it has been rough in terms of even when Kyler was healthy, getting passes and having the passing game not feel like a just hold your breath moment every time. Sometimes you miss this about great athletes is that it's hard for them to shut off the competitive part of who they are when it comes to their individual success and their individual performance. I think we saw this with Tom Brady at the end with some of the frustration he had in New England and part of what precipitated his departure. And him landing in Tampa was, you know, he felt like there wasn't enough around him at the end in New England and it was affecting his individual performance, even though they were still winning. He wasn't able to play the level that he wanted to. And I think that dynamic definitely exists for Justin Jefferson. Thank you so much Look, I've talked to him in the past about his goals and he wants to retire as one of for being a part the greatest receivers of all time, you know? And so your ability to perform at that level of this conversation, and be that guy is materially affected by the quarterback. And on the Raiders side, I do want to touch on that, Rachel, because I think it's important and I look forward to over the last couple of weeks, I can tell you the Raiders, I've heard from Raiders people like Mendoza's ready. seeing you next time. They're really prioritizing building the culture there. And for Clint Kubiak, a huge piece of this was, okay, if we are going to go to Mendoza, I don't want guys on the team thinking we're waving the white flag. You want to reward a guy who's done everything right and Cousins has done everything right. And so this doesn't have to be like an awkward benching. The upside is we all get to watch Fernando Mendoza play. We all get to see the sort of progress that he's made. Yes. Win, win, win, win, win. So the Raiders won. Fernando Mendoza won. Kirk Cousins won. The Vikings won. Justin Jefferson won. And I guess there's a sixth win, which is us as the fans. That's an excellent point. All right. I want to stay in the AFC West. The Chiefs added Josh Downs. The Broncos. I mean, somehow got what the Chargers defense to come to them, but yeah, I want to sort of, let's start with the chiefs, right? Because always of interest, that team, what do you think? I mean, we've been asking them to get a receiver for 600 years. It feels like, what do you think of that move and how will that affect them long-term through the season? They had been looking and, you know, I think. Part of the issue they have is they've got some young guys they like that have been less than consistent. So, you know, Rashee Rice has had the off-field issues. They feel like he's got a high, high ceiling. Like, he can be a top-ten receiver in the league, but, like, how long are you going to wait for this? You know, and he's in his fourth year now, and so can you rely on him? You have a rookie they really like in Cyrus Allen, but he's a rookie, so there's going to be some ups and downs. Xavier Worthy, you know. you're still figuring out what he is in his third year. I think because of the upside, Brian Thomas Jr. was probably the first guy that they had circled. Jacksonville wasn't trading him. The Jags, of course, as all their moves over the last couple of days show, they're really in a win now position. And they felt like for a million different reasons, it didn't make sense to trade Thomas now. And if they're going to do it, it made more sense to do it after the season. Uh, so then Downs is sort of the next best thing. And you're going into the weekend. I had a pretty good feel. This was going to happen. And I think, you know, it was sort of like, it's at a fourth round pick. So can the, can, can we get a little bit more? That's the way the Colts are thinking. You know, I think, you know, the chiefs hope they get more out of Allen. They hope they get more out of Rice. They hope they get more out of Worthy, but you know, among the young players now Downs is sort of the proven commodity and gives them somebody they can count on. Mahomes can go to in critical situations to move the chains and be a reliable target when it matters most. I think when you have a Patrick Mahomes on your roster that is a generational, once in a lifetime sort of guy, you trade away every asset. You give him everything to work with because he's going to eventually retire and you won't have that anymore. And your team is going to be worse once he is gone or is at the end of his career anyway. It's not like you're guessing what it's going to be coming off the ACL. They're in the thick of it. And so like now you got the proof. It's like, okay, like we're back to where we were a couple of years ago. And like, we need to operate the same way we have been since Patrick Mahomes became the starting quarterback. So we talked a little bit earlier about the moves Jacksonville made, but how do you feel they fit into the Super Bowl favorites scheme, given what they did yesterday? I think they're right at the top, Rachel. They're 15-3 in their last 18 regular season games. When I looked this up last week, it caught me off guard. Nine of those 15 wins are by 14 points or more. That doesn't happen in the NFL. That stat is insane, right? Yeah, it just doesn't happen. And the one playoff game that they played in was a tooth and nail fight with the best player in football, Josh Allen. It was similar to the sort of game that Buffalo played and lost the next week against Denver. So I don't know how you wouldn't think they're right there based on how they've played this year, based on what happened last year. And they've got their core in place, which makes, you know, which gives you a little more flexibility in what you're doing with the draft picks. And, you know, I think they saw a fit in all three guys they brought in. The 2D tackles, they lost Devon Hamilton, who is a really, really good player for them. One of, um, one of the guys there said he was an anvil for their defense, but, um, you know, what they want to do is they want to build a defense. That's superpower is stopping the run and forcing teams into bad down and distance situations. And that's what Davis is. And that's That's what Godchow is. And then Jesse Bates replaces another injured guy in Eric Murray. They see some traits in Bates that they saw in Jacoby Myers when they acquired him last year for the offense. On defense, Bates is going to bring intelligence, toughness, savvy. They really feel like he can make their entire defense smarter. Obviously, adding three pieces like this right up against the deadline. You're talking about being on the margins with the very best teams in the league. These are three guys that can really help. Absolutely. Again, this is exactly what I was saying about Patrick Mahomes earlier. You have the chance. The stars have aligned. You've made smart moves. The guys are healthy right now. All of the things. This is when you go for it. This is it. The other side is the teams that just emptied everything because they're like, great, let's admit failure and prepare for the future, which is what I thought the Colts were going to do. But then why is Jonathan Taylor Because they didn't get their price. And if you look and you dig into the guys that they traded away, the four guys, none of them were under contract next year. So Josh Downs, DeForest Buckner, Quentin Nelson, and Keenan Allen, they were all up. I think ownership came in and wanted to have a job that was attractive for the next general manager. If they're going to make a coaching change, same thing on that end. And they didn't have capital to turn the roster over because they traded their first round pick as part of the The Sauce Gardner trade last year. So. She wanted them to go and collect capital and see what they could do. As part of all of this, they've added a three, they've added two fours, they've added two fives, they've added a six. And so now you at least have volume of picks to work with if you're the next general manager, whether that's Ed Dodds or someone else. Taylor's a little different because he's under contract next year. And really the feeling there was if we're going to move him, it's got to be for a premium return. So they set that at either a first round pick or a package like the Christian McCaffrey package. You know, the Giants came, I think, closest to it. Nobody could kind of rise to that level. So the good news is, Rachel, because he's under contract. Now he's an asset for whoever's next there. Now that makes a lot of sense. A team that usually is one of the smartest front offices that we talk about decided to hold on to Saquon Barkley. He is still in Philadelphia. What does that tell you about his future with the Eagles? I don't know if they were ever going to get what it would take to justify a trade like that. And Saquon, it's hard to believe next year is going to be his 10th year. That's crazy. Yeah. He's expensive and he's hurt right now. You know, he's dealing with the hamstring. I think anybody who's watched in the last couple of weeks, like obviously he's sat some and then, you know, when he was in there, um, you know, on the, was the Monday night they play Monday or Sunday night, Sunday night, like, you know, in week eight, um, it was hard to watch at times where he just, you see him, he comes off, he's grabbing his hamstring and it was difficult to get a full return for him. And so, you know, I think in that case, you kind of. That's another one you sort of punt to the offseason and you make a decision on his future when you get to February and March. They have 10 picks in the first three rounds over the next three years. It's crazy. I mean, there's no one better. I want to make sure I get this right. But as a result of the A.J. Brown, Cam Jurgens, and Jordan Davis trade, which were all made in this calendar year, all made within the last six months. You now have two firsts in 2027, two firsts and two seconds in 2028, and then two seconds in 2029, which is an unbelievable amount of draft picks. And just when you think the clock is running out on the core that Howie's built, now all of a sudden they're set up to build the next one. It's pretty incredible. Now it is go time for these teams, and we will be checking in with I'm with you, Albert, throughout. The rest of the season, we really appreciate you making the time. For sure. And, you know, speaking of trades, I got Jalen Brown on my TV now. So we'll see how that goes. Thank you for watching the story. You know that here at Sports Illustrated, as we talked about today, the games may end, but the stories don't.