Reid Kerr

Once upon a time, nobody in the NFL ever got traded.

As visions of Herschel Walker dance in your heads, let me qualify that statement. What I mean is, nobody ever got traded in-season.

The NFL is never going to be Major League Baseball, where teams will dump half of their rosters for cash and draft picks as soon as they drop out of the playoff hunt. Or even basketball, where teams will trade roster spots for players who aren’t even born yet.

The NFL is the most complex of sports, so it’s not as easy as plugging-and-playing. It’s one thing to grab a free agent and hope they’ll catch on, but to actually surrender draft picks for a player who might not immediately help you has been a very risky prospect.

Until recently.

In 1981, one player was traded during the season. There were six in 1991, seven in 2001, and nine in 2011. Last year it was 21, and in 2019 31 players got moved before the deadline.

Trust me, I have a crack research staff composed of three interns who somehow think they’re getting college credit for stuff like this.

With the razor-thin margins between winning and losing shrinking every year, NFL teams have become more willing to give up on future picks and deal for those players who might make an immediate difference. The Texans gave up draft picks for Laremy Tunsil. Dallas brought in Amari Cooper.

And now, the Eagles can trade Zach Ertz, and it’s not a big deal. Odell Beckham Jr. can be on the trading block. And Houston can try and move their franchise quarterback, a guy who’s facing double-digit sexual assault allegations, because someone always thinks they can do better with another team’s castoffs.

The NFL’s trading deadline is Nov. 2. I’ll put the over-under on 2.5 trades involving players you’ve heard of from now until then.

Now on to the picks. In week five I went 5-1 and 2-4 against the Vegas spread. In my defense, figuring out point spreads is hard sometimes. That’s why my “Vegas office” is the dumpster behind that burned out Circuit City in Henderson. I’m now 21-15 on the season and 15-20-1 against Vegas, which means I still need a week of perfection to pull even. As always, these are for the purposes of comedic discussion only. No wagering.

Cincinnati (plus 6.5) at Baltimore: One more win, and Cincinnati will put Joe Burrow on their currency.

Pick: Bengals to win it outright.

Kansas City (minus 5) at Tennessee: My prediction for this one? A lot of points. Derrick Henry should have about 2000 yards in this game.

Pick: Chiefs to win but not cover, winning by four or fewer points.

Detroit (plus 15.5) at LA Rams: Jared Goff would have the ultimate modern tragic quarterback story, except his story is still not as bad as Josh Rosen’s.

Pick: Rams to win but not cover, winning by 15 or fewer.

Washington (plus 8) at Green Bay: If 10-year-old emails are generating more interest than your current football roster, you might have a serious institutional problem.

Pick: Packers to win and cover, winning by nine or more.

Houston (plus 17.5) at Arizona: The Texans working on a deal with the Dolphins is like the 2008 Detroit Lions working out a trade with the Washington Generals.

Pick: Cardinals to win but not cover, winning by seventeen or fewer.

New Orleans (minus 4.5) at Seattle: He’s done an admirable job in relief, but I’m not even sure that Geno Smith knew Geno Smith was still in the league a month ago.

Pick: Saints to win and cover, winning by five or more.

I’ll also take the Patriots over the Jets, Bucs over the Bears, and four hours of Wipeout over that Dune movie. Good luck, everybody.

Reid Kerr thinks Halloween is more fun as an adult because you can just buy the candy you like. You can always tweet questions, comments, and angry messages to him at @reidaboutit.