The 2018 NFL trade deadline is a week away, and it looks like it could be a busy one. The Oakland Raiders traded wide receiver Amari Cooper to the Dallas Cowboys for a first round pick on Monday, and now the New York Giants have traded cornerback Eli Apple to the New Orleans Saints. Adam Schefter is reporting the Saints are sending a 4th-round pick in 2019 and a 7th-round pick in 2020 to complete the deal.
The Saints have been looking for cornerback help, with injuries and inconsistency hurting them the first seven weeks. New Orleans is 5-1 and sitting on top of the NFC South. The Rams are the team to beat in the NFC right now, but without much else really stepping up thus far, it makes sense for the Saints to get aggressive at a position of need.
This could mean the Cardinals are holding out for a particularly high price for cornerback Patrick Peterson. He wants out, and is the best cornerback on the market. Even if the Cardinals weren’t holding out for a ridiculous price, it would still cost significantly more than what the Saints appear to have given up for a solid addition in Apple.
The 49ers have a need at cornerback with Richard Sherman dealing with a calf injury, and the rest of the group struggling with anything resembling consistency — well, consistently good, I suppose.
John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan have some decisions to make between now and next Tuesday as they look to the present and the future. This is a team playing 2018 to evaluate young players for 2019 and figure out what they need to do to surround Jimmy Garoppolo on offense and DeForest Buckner on defense with more talent.
On Monday, Shanahan was asked if the team would be looking for options as the trade deadline approaches. He explained the value of improving, but also considering long-term implications.
“Yeah, definitely. We’re always looking for things to improve our team. I think the hardest thing, the thing we want to be the strongest with, everyone would love a quick fix right now. I know I would, I know our players would, I know [general manager] John [Lynch] and the personnel staff would. But, it’s not just about a quick fix. We’re dedicated to try to win this Sunday. But, we’re also not going to just do something that makes us feel better today that hurts us for the future. So, we take everything into account, from our perspective, about what we do on a day-to-day basis is about trying to find a way to beat Arizona. But, when it comes to trades and things like that, there’s more business involved in that that doesn’t just affect this week. Things that affect the salary cap and things like that into next year and how we’re trying to build this and we’re trying to stay committed to that.”
The next week will give us a better handle on where things might be headed over the course of next offseason.