QB Room, Week 6: These WRs might be available at the trade deadline for marquee teams and signal-callers

Davante Adams is a New York Jet.

Amari Cooper is a Buffalo Bill.

And just like that, the arms race to obtain effective wide receiver chess pieces — meant to help NFL quarterbacks as short-term adrenaline shots heading toward the playoffs — is officially underway.

So who is next up? Multiple sources across the league are pointing at the Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers as teams aggressively in the hunt. One high-ranking AFC executive tied into the Adams deal between the Jets and Las Vegas Raiders said Tuesday that Kansas City and Pittsburgh are two franchises that will “definitely” acquire a receiver prior to the Nov. 5 trade deadline.

“I think they both go for a receiver — they both get a receiver” the executive said. “[Steelers GM Omar] Khan had a deal done for [San Francisco 49ers wideout Brandon] Aiyuk in August and [Aiyuk] blew it up. But now they called on Davante just to see what the price was at. They’re obviously pushing to get someone before the deadline. And the Chiefs are calling around, too. Both of them, I think they will both trade for someone [before the deadline].”

The logic makes sense. When I visited the Steelers during training camp, they did indeed have a deal done for Aiyuk for draft picks — but it was also contingent on him giving it the green light. That never came, and Pittsburgh was left hanging at the wideout position heading into the regular season. Ideally, the Steelers would like to add someone to balance out the top end of a wide receiver depth chart that features a dependance on mercurial focus (George Pickens) and swath of massive inexperience, from Van Jefferson to Calvin Austin III to unproven rookie Roman Wilson.

This is difficult with the uncertainty at quarterback. A source close to Adams told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday that he never would have considered a trade scenario to the Steelers, largely because he wanted to play with a familiar quarterback — but also because of the trend of lacking offensive creativity over the past few seasons in Pittsburgh. Interestingly, I think some people inside the Steelers can understand that attitude, given the franchise’s drumbeat dedication to getting past a 2023 season that was defined by offensive limitations. Of course, part of that involves an addition at the wideout spot … which has proven extremely frustrating for several months.

As for the Chiefs, there are multiple factors in play right now. Tight end Travis Kelce is just starting to get some traction, but still lacks a touchdown after five games this season. The running back spot is beat up. The wideouts, without Rashee Rice, are either inexperienced, unproven or inconsistent. In turn, Patrick Mahomes is off to a (for him) very pedestrian start to the season. Clearly, Kansas City isn’t anywhere near what it could be on offense. So a proven playmaker, even if it’s a veteran nearing the sun-setting of his career, is absolutely in play. The problem? The current salary-cap space is tight, and there is already a pressing priority to go back to the table on Mahomes’ deal next offseason. So restructures pushing money into future years is more complicated than usual.

Regardless, it’s clear across the league that the Chiefs are hunting alongside the Steelers. But who are the trade candidates? It’s still a week or two early, but here’s a short list of five wide receivers who are trending toward being available at the deadline:

DeAndre Hopkins, Tennessee Titans

Let’s be real. You can probably put all of the Titans’ receivers on this list. Hopkins still has some pull, although he’s past his best days and it’s likely an acquiring team would ask Tennessee to eat some of his salary. He’s also worth nothing more than a very low-rung draft pick, especially if an acquiring team has to pay him the rest of his 2024 salary.

Tee Higgins, Cincinnati Bengals

The Bengals aren’t getting a contract extension with him done and his franchise tag in 2025 will be nearly $26.2 million. Cincinnati isn’t going to pay that. If the season is lost by the deadline, regardless of how quarterback Joe Burrow feels about it, the Bengals will have to listen to offers. The one complication in dealing for Higgins? A new team will need to have an extension worked out with him because the trade price isn’t going to simply be some late-round draft pick.

Cooper Kupp, Los Angeles Rams

When I spoke with people in the Rams organization back in training camp, it felt like a very strong possibility that this could be Kupp’s last season with the team. He’s got age (31) on him along with a lot of wear and tear, and the injuries feel like they’re an annual maintenance issue now. The dead cap for moving on after this season is just over $22.2 million and there’s a chance that quarterback Matthew Stafford retires (or the Rams move away from him, too). This is the last chance for Los Angeles to get trade capital out of Kupp. If the season is over nearing the deadline, he’s going to draw calls from interested teams.

Mike Williams, New York Jets

Williams will effectively be phased out of the Jets’ offense now that Adams is in the fold, so he’s available to any teams that have interest. The downside: you have to go back to 2022 to watch Williams fill a role as a truly productive wideout. At this stage of his career, his value may be highest among teams needing size on the depth chart for red zone and 50-50 ball opportunities. There won’t be a ton of teams jumping on him.

Adam Thielen, Carolina Panthers

He won’t be back with the Panthers in 2025. That much is certain. So if a team is looking for a steady “adult in the room” veteran in wide receiver meetings who can come in and be a solid, productive player for a quarterback, Thielen is an option. At best, he’s a dependable low second-ish to third-ish contributor for your wideouts.

With slightly less than three weeks left before the Nov. 5 trade deadline, that’s the top of your available or soon-to-be-available wideout market after Adams and Cooper were moved on Tuesday. Happy hunting.

Now on to Week 6 of the QB Room …

• Caleb Williams’ 31-yard touchdown to tight end Cole Kmet. Two beautiful pump fakes that smoked the middle linebacker and the free released defensive end. Then a calm, perfect throw to Kmet in space that allowed him to set up a move. This is the USC Caleb Williams.

• Drake Maye’s 36-yard dart to DeMario Douglas. A perfect pressure throw over the middle of the field off play-action on third-and-5. Arm strength + accuracy + decisiveness. You can see why the New England Patriots fan base has come back to life after only one start for the No. 3 overall pick in the draft.

• Jared Goff misfiring on a 2-point conversion throw to offensive tackle Taylor Decker, conjuring memories of the Detroit Lions’ Week 17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys last season. In that defeat, the Lions appeared to go ahead late in the fourth quarter on a successful 2-point conversion throw to Decker. Officials overturned the play on what appeared to be their own confusion over which offensive linemen had reported eligible on the play. The Lions said they had left that game in the past leading into this one. They most certainly didn’t, and they wanted everyone to know it. Love the spiteful Lions. Also might explain why they kept their foot on the gas pedal for so long in this 47-9 blowout win.

• Aaron Rodgers’ fourth successful Hail Mary completion of his career. The excitement even swept up a couple superstars, with the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James reacting in amazement.

• Brock Purdy’s wicked 7-yard touchdown to San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle, which was tucked into a thimble at the front pylon of the end zone. This is the critical 10-yard out route that is ridiculously hard to complete in the NFL. It’s a tapestry of arm strength, timing and the purest of precision. Absolute badassery on this one.

In what is starting to look like the year of the rookie quarterback, I figured I’d take a look at the impact Drake Maye’s first start had on the New England Patriots’ offense. The best way to do this would be to wait until Maye has a full five-game slate under his belt so we could look at that versus previous starter Jacoby Brissett’s first five games of the season. But given the state of the Patriots’ offensive line, I’m not willing to risk waiting another four games only to see Maye get hurt. Instead, let’s look at the basic back-to-back starts, taking Brissett’s Week 5 performance against the Miami Dolphins and pressing it against Maye’s Week 6 start against the Houston Texans.

Now, as a disclaimer, I’ll say up front that offenses are geared to function differently based on what the defense presents. And the Dolphins and Texans clearly aren’t running all of the same defensive packages with the same personnel. So it’s a bit of an apples vs. oranges situation. But we can at least take a few things away from the two games that might forecast Maye’s future.

Here are the two passing dot charts, starting first with Brissett against the Dolphins:

And next is Maye’s performance against the Texans:

Before we get into the dots, there are a couple things we can measure right off the bat. Of Brissett’s 34 attempts against the Dolphins, he threw 18 of them at his four most popular choices: posts (5), hitches (5), flares (4) and out routes (4). Of Maye’s 33 attempts against the Texans, 19 were thrown to his three most popular choices: out routes (9), slants (5) and hitches (5). Interestingly, Maye threw zero posts, zero in routes, and only one go route. You could read that line and know what the dot chart is going to look like before you even get to it. Clearly, the Patriots put an emphasis on Maye getting the ball out as quickly as possible, helping to minimize his exposure to that severely hobbled offensive line. The result was taking advantage of his arm strength and accuracy, but in a way that didn’t leave him standing around in the pocket waiting for a bunch of intermediate to deep routes to develop. And for the most part, it worked well, with Maye going an impressive 9-for-9 on the out routes (with one touchdown) and 4-for-5 on the slants (also with one touchdown). The hitch attempts were total duds (0-for-5).

The results when you look at the two charts? Like the first-start charts of the other three rookie quarterbacks who are playing this season — Chicago’s Caleb Williams, Washington’s Jayden Daniels and Denver’s Bo Nix — the first foray into the NFL was largely a festival of passes that were 10 yards and in. Of Maye’s 33 passes, 25 were either less than 10 air yards or thrown behind the line of scrimmage. That’s nearly 76 percent of his passes — mere puddle jumps. Compare that to Brissett in Week 5 and you’ll see that 19 of his 34 passes were less than 10 air yards or behind the line of scrimmage. That’s nearly 56 percent.

So, just in terms of a back-to-back basis, you got a somewhat dialed-back template of risk. But there is a part that should be extremely enthusing for Patriots fans. In Brissett’s five games — with a healthier offensive line and the same skill position talent — he never threw for more than 168 yards or rushed for more than 32. His high passing and rushing marks also came in different games. Conversely, Maye threw for 243 yards and ran for 38 in his first game. Brissett threw two touchdowns in five starts; Maye threw three in his one start. And the part that really matters, playing into Maye’s upside, he threw two precision passes that were touchdowns: a perfect 40-yard go route to Kayshon Boutte, and a pinpoint 35-yard laser of a slant to Demario Douglas, which hit him in full stride and paved the way for Douglas’ touchdown (you can see this throw in the “5 Throws That Blew Me Away” section above).

It certainly wasn’t a perfect outing for Maye, especially with his two interceptions and lost fumble on a strip sack. But Maye amped up a big-play nature that wasn’t there with Brissett. I can see now why the wideouts wanted him starting in Week 6. Depending on the state of that line and Maye’s ability to protect himself and the football, it’s fair to assume the scheme will loosen up as the season goes along, allowing more access to downfield plays. For now, I’d expect it remains very run-oriented on the early downs as New England continues to protect its prized rookie as long as it can. But his confidence should grow if he can continue to build on Week 6. Next up is the Jacksonville Jaguars, who have seen their defense torched three out of the last four weeks. That should give Maye and the offensive staff a chance to take another sizable stride forward.

Stock Up

Detroit Lions’ Jared Goff

18-for-25, 315 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs; 2 sacks

He’s completing a whopping 81.8 percent of his passes over his past three games. That doesn’t include a couple of catchable balls, including a crossing route in the win over Dallas that basically hit Jameson Williams square in the face and likely would have gone for a touchdown if he didn’t drop it. Goff still has bad misses in clean pockets (especially throwing to running backs) which is weird, and he’ll hang one up every once in a while and get bailed out by wideout adjustments. More often than not, Goff makes the basic throws without screwing them up. For now, he gets an up arrow for going three straight games without really shooting the Lions in the foot. This week will be a measuring stick against the Minnesota Vikings and a Brian Flores defense that will throw the kitchen sink at him.

San Francisco 49ers’ Brock Purdy

18-for-28, 255 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs; 4 rushes for 19 yards; 0 sacks

Purdy made some postage stamp throws in Week 6. Rather than stare back at the win over the Seattle Seahawks, I’d like to lean into a point George Kittle made recently, saying that Purdy is the victim of goal-post moving. Essentially, people say he can’t do something, then he does it, and then they say he can’t do something else. One thing is certain: through 27 games as a starter, he’s off to the best career start of any quarterback in 49ers history — by almost any metric. How does he stack up with league QBs this year? He’s performing at a fringe top-five level. And if he stays this track, he’ll be the highest paid player in the NFL next offseason.

Chicago Bears’ Caleb Williams

23-for-29, 226 yards, 4 TDs, 1 INT; 4 rushes for 56 yards; 3 sacks

The early season negative of Williams holding onto the ball too long and getting crushed is starting to turn into a positive direction. His feel for the game is getting better moving through the chaos around him. Granted, he’ll still make a throw or two that makes you wince and triggers instant videos posted to social media with snarky commentary. But those are already getting whittled down from one week to the next. He doesn’t seem out of pace with the speed of things around him, either. And he’s quickly gotten into sync with Keenan Allen. I cannot wait for his game after this week’s bye, when he faces Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders in Week 8. Perfect timing for the Nos. 1 and 2 overall draft picks to meet.

Stock Down

Dallas Cowboys’ Dak Prescott

17-for-33, 178 yards, 0 TDs, 2 INTs; 4 sacks

Prescott was uncharacteristically bad in the loss to the Detroit Lions, spraying the ball all over the place and never looking comfortable. It was undoubtedly one of the worst games he has played in a long time. That has to be concerning for a team that is beat up on defense but in pretty good shape on offense. The skill position pieces and offensive line are all mostly healthy in terms of the expanse of the past several weeks, so you can’t point a finger to injuries as a reason for Prescott’s inconsistency against the Lions. Maybe it’s a weird blip of a game. Or maybe Prescott needs another piece to work with, a la the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets both adding a wideout to help patch some of their offensive problems. Brandin Cooks will come back eventually, but he wasn’t exactly lighting it up in September.

New York Giants’ Daniel Jones

22-for-41, 205 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT; 11 rushes for 56 yards; 2 sacks

The loss to the Cincinnati Bengals was arguably Jones’ worst overall performance since the season-opening defeat to the Minnesota Vikings. His second quarter interception in the red zone was a critical mistake that should have been thrown away and felt like it changed the complexion of the game. But, frankly, the biggest reason for Jones hitting the stock down chart is potentially losing starting left tackle Andrew Thomas for the remainder of the season with a foot injury. Jones’ sack rate is nearly double without Thomas than games with him. The next three games against the Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers and Washington Commanders will spell out the depth of the problem very quickly.

Carolina Panthers’ Andy Dalton

26-for-38, 221 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs; 3 rushes for 21 yards

Dalton isn’t in the stock down department for the classic reason of poor play. He was functional in the loss to the Atlanta Falcons — not awful, not great, about average given the surrounding talent. His predicament is that the Carolina Panthers are quickly falling out of any chance of being competitive this season. The win over the Las Vegas Raiders on Sept. 22 has faded, the Panthers are an abysmal 1-5 and once they’re out of any kind of playoff shot, which is coming soon, then you have to find a justification for continuing to start Dalton over Bryce Young. If the answer is simply to run an average offense and measure the progress of the rest of the offensive depth chart, then you might as well see if you can trade Young by the Nov. 5 deadline because his career is likely over in Carolina. If you don’t think Young has any shot at presenting even a passable offense from one week to the next, then you’ve lost faith in him. If you think he has starting ability — or will have it — then you have to start figuring out where his insertion occurs. I can’t imagine it’s coming out of the bye week, facing the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in consecutive weeks. It might have to be one of the two home games that open up November, against the New Orleans Saints or the New York Giants prior to the bye week. Whatever the decision, it feels like Dalton has to be on the clock in some sense. And not really due to how he has played.

• Legitimately, this is probably the happiest Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams have been this season. I have no idea if this is actually going to work for the Jets, but I have zero doubt they have both wanted this reunion since Rodgers was traded to the Jets and Adams watched Derek Carr get kicked to the curb by the Raiders. And while it’s coming at least a year later than both hoped, Adams’ willingness to start massaging his contract this season is suggestive that he might be in a Jets uniform in 2025, too. That will all depend how the rest of the season unfolds and whether the euphoric feelings of getting the band back together last.

• I doubt we’ll ever get the full ins and outs of Tom Brady being approved as a 5 percent minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. But it’s wild that his stake is being purchased for a reported $220 million, which would put the Las Vegas Raiders’ valuation in the range of $3.5 billion. There was some behind-the-curtains ownership grumbling a year ago that Raiders owner Mark Davis was offering the minority stake to Brady at too steep a discount, causing some club owners to hold up an approval of the sale.
  Frankly, I kind of understand that sentiment. In August, Forbes pegged the Raiders’ valuation at $6.7 billion, which would dial Brady’s 5 percent into the range of $335 million. If the Forbes valuation is correct, Brady is buying his stake at a 34 percent discount. If Brady is truly going to have a hand in helping find the Raiders’ next quarterback — as Davis suggested he could — Davis has certainly paid a hefty price for the expertise.

• While we’re on the Brady equity purchase, I can’t help but think about John Elway’s decision in 1999 to pass on a chance to buy 20 percent of the Denver Broncos for what amounted to $36 million ($15 million in cash and a waiver of nearly $21 million in deferred salary owed to him by then-Broncos owner Pat Bowlen). The offer to Elway was actually in two parts. He could buy 10 percent of the team for $15 million, then another 10 percent for the relinquishing of the $21 million in salary he was still owed … however, the second 10 percent purchase had a caveat: Elway would have to agree to be an executive for Bowlen, with an end goal of the former quarterback eventually taking over as the team’s chief operating officer. Elway — who one year earlier had sold off some car dealerships for more than $82 million — ultimately passed on both ends of the deal, apparently because he didn’t want to pursue a career as an executive. It was a wildly costly decision, given that Elway’s stake would have been worth roughly $930 million when the Broncos were sold for $4.65 billion in 2022. He also became an executive inside the Broncos anyway, as the team’s general manager from 2011-2020, and then the president of football operations in 2021. Certainly not the same path as chief operating officer, but still … it’s wild how that decision turned out.

• I’m going to circle back to this post on X one last time, only because Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has now said that Russell Wilson will be taking some first-team snaps on offense this week. When this discussion was aired on the “Sunday Night Football” broadcast on Oct. 15, alarm bells should have been going off for every Steelers fan. Head coaches tip their hands occasionally about some big decisions during pre-production meetings with prime-time analysts. I am convinced that was the case here.

• I’m going to take a break from posting clips from the Manningcast every week in here, but I’ve got to sneak this one in before the hiatus. I’ve said before the best part of this show is Peyton blowing a gasket on dumb plays, but an underrated part is just watching the subtle reactions of Eli when someone goes off the rails or starts s**t talking during the broadcast. His straight-face-to-full-grin when Bill Belichick verbally slapped Jets owner Woody Johnson was excellent TV. And as an aside, Belichick seems to be in his best season with all the media appearances and work on this side of the fence. I have no idea why he’d want to go back to the football grind after this, especially when he seems to be enjoying himself.

• I was going to do a lead about Deshaun Watson last week, but the Jets fired Robert Saleh and everyone (incorrectly) put the body on Aaron Rodgers … so that forced Watson to this week. Then the Jets traded for Davante Adams for Rodgers and the Buffalo Bills added Amari Cooper for Josh Allen, so Watson was pulled from the top spot again. That’s fine. We can address Watson down the line. But I’ll close the column leaving you with this thought on Watson: As bad as he has been up to this point, he now moves forward without Cooper (who, to be fair, was playing poorly), and inches toward a punishing slate of pass defenses, beginning in Week 8 with the Baltimore Ravens. As it stands, through Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Watson will have faced seven teams with an average ranking of 24.4 (of 32) in defensive pass efficiency. Let that sink in for a moment. As bad as Watson has been, it has occurred against opponents with an average ranking in the bottom fourth of the league in defensive pass efficiency. From Week 8 through the rest of the season — if you toss out the Bengals (who rank 30th) — nine of Cleveland’s remaining 10 opponents have an average defensive pass efficiency ranking of 10.5 (out of 32). So no more Cooper, plus a swath of really good pass defenses to close out the season. If Watson and that offense can’t flip a switch soon, this season could have the trajectory of a bowling ball dropped out of a 10th story window.