We started publishing Fantasy Football Index in 1987. Over the years, there have been a handful of big trades during the season, and they’re always exciting. On some of these, I remember, exactly what I was doing when the news broke.
With most of these trades, the winner ended up being the team that moved the player. That makes sense. They have the advantage of knowing more about said player – they’ve been working with him for months or years, so they’ve got a feel for what he’s all about.
Eric Dickerson 1987 Dickerson was 27 when the Rams, Colts and Bills put together a three-team deal that involved Cornelius Bennett. Dickerson was good from the get-go, running for 1,011 yards in nine games in 1987. He ran for 1,659 yards and 14 TDs in his first full season in Indianapolis. Dickerson had another good (not great) year in 1988, running for 1,311 yards and 7 TDs, but he was never quite the same back with the Colts that he had been with the Rams.
Herschel Walker 1989 Walker was supposed to put the Vikings over the top; the previous year, he had run for 1,514 yards for the Cowboys. But Walker ran for 669 yards and 5 TDs in 11 games in his first year in Minnesota. He went for 770 and 825 the next two seasons. Who would have thought, when that trade was going down, that Walker’s next 1,000-yard season would be with the Eagles?
Mike Rozier 1990 He was going to be a featured back. Ended up sharing time with Steve Broussard. Rozier ran for 675 yards and 3 TDs in 13 games for the Falcons. This trade was orchestrated by Jerry Glanville, who had coached Rozier with the Oilers and thought he would spark Atlanta’s running game. Glanville ended up making an even worse trade two years later when he sent Brett Favre to the Packers.
Keith Jackson 1995 Jackson was traded from Miami to Green Bay in the offseason, but it was like an in-season trade because he didn’t show up until halfway through the season. The Packers by that time had a good starting tight end – Mark Chmura – but they used plenty of formations with two tight ends. Jackson caught 13 passes and one touchdown in nine games. Not big numbers. Jackson the following year was a weapon; 40 catches and 10 touchdowns in a full season.
Andre Rison 1996 Not actually a trade, but like a trade. Rison had been a great receiver with the Falcons but wasn’t doing anything with Jacksonville (which had settled on Jimmy Smith and Keenan McCardell). When the Jaguars waived him, Green Bay picked him up for the final month-plus of the 1996 season. The Packers were a Super Bowl contender but had injury problems with their receivers, with Robert Brooks (knee) out for the year and Antonio Freeman sidelined with a broken forearm. So they added Rison. He wasn’t a difference maker, but he helped them win their first Super Bowl since the ‘60s. Rison caught 13 passes and one touchdown in five regular-season game. In the playoffs, he caught 7 passes and 2 TDs, including a 54-yarder early in the Super Bowl against New England.
Roy Williams 2008 Williams was supposed to a franchise receiver. He had an 82-catch season with the Lions, and three years with 7-8 TDs. But it never happened in Dallas. He caught 19 passes for 198 yards and 1 TD in 10 games in his first season. He feel short of 40 catches in each of his two full seasons with Dallas. The Cowboys gave up first-, third- and sixth-round picks to get him.
Randy Moss 2010 Moss had caught a record 23 TDs in 2007, so it was a shocker that New England would ship him off to Minnesota a month into the season (for a third-round pick). But the Patriots knew what they were doing; Moss had slipped and simply wasn’t the same, dynamic player anymore. He caught 13 passes and 2 TDs in four games for the Vikings before they cut him. He wound up in a reserve role for Tennessee for the second half of the season.
Carson Palmer 2011 Palmer wanted out of Cincinnati. The Bengals patiently waited him out, then got first- and second-round picks from the Raiders (who seemed to have a decent team and were desperate for a quarterback after Jason Campbell broke his collarbone). Palmer wasn’t particularly successful, with 13 TDs and 16 interceptions while going 4-5 as a starter. His numbers were decent the following year (268 yards per game, with 22 TDs and 14 interceptions), but he went only 4-11 as a starter and the Raiders were done with him.
Trent Richardson 2013 Richardson had a decent rookie year – everyone thought he was the league’s next big thing at running back – so it was a shocker when the Browns gave him to Indianapolis after two games for a future first-round pick. Turns out Cleveland knew exactly what it was doing. Richardson averaged only 2.9 yards per carry in his first season with the Colts and hasn’t been much better this year, sitting at 3.2 after six weeks.
Percy Harvin 2014 Harvin is a dynamic playmaking kind of guy, but it’s telling that the Seahawks were willing to get rid of him for just a mid-round pick, less than two years after they gave up first- and third-round picks to get him (plus signed him to a six-year contract worth $67 million). Harvin caused all kinds of problems with coaches at Florida and with the Vikings, and apparently there were the same kind of problems with the Seahawks. The Jets just got rid of a similar kind of receiver in the offseason (Santonio Holmes), and it sure looks like history could be repeating itself. Harvin is more explosive than Holmes, but he’s had problems staying healthy and appears to be very difficult to work with.