The WR trade market was expected to be hot, and it may still heat up, but the first domino has yet to fall with just a handful of hours until the trade deadline. Tom Pelissero explained the stalemate on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football.
“We’ve talked a lot about Jaylen Waddle,” Pelissero said. “He’s not gonna come cheap from the Dolphins. They’re gonna want a first-round pick and more to consider moving Waddle. You’ve got the likes of Calvin Ridley and Rashid Shaheed and Jakobi Meyers. My understanding is there’s about a half dozen teams that are in the wide receiver market. The price on all those kinds of second-tier wide receivers, if you will, has just been too high.”
Yesterday we learned from Adam Schefter that the New Orleans Saints are looking for a third-round pick for Shaheed. And now we have Pelissero noting that Waddle would cost more than just a first-round pick. Every team that is willing to trade a wide receiver is overinflating value, hoping that a contender gets desperate enough to overpay.
“There’s not a lot of teams wanting to bring in a player for, let’s say, a third-round pick on what potentially could be a rental type of contract,” Pelissero said.
Almost all of the teams looking to sell a receiver are sellers for a reason. In most cases, it doesn’t make sense to hang onto the receivers who have expiring contracts. It’s best to get at least some compensation in return for them. But teams are also weighing the possibility of a compensatory pick in the 2027 NFL Draft versus what they could get right now in 2026. That prevents the asking prices from drifting too low but expect some of these asking prices to drop in the final hours.
Are the Pittsburgh Steelers in the receiver market? Multiple reports over the last month suggest they are. But don’t expect Omar Khan to overpay for a rental player. If the WR market has too many buyers and an overinflated price, maybe he shifts his attention to other positions instead.
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