NFL Trade Deadline: Kirk Cousins Returns to the Vikings, and the Bears' Jeffery Simmons Deal Leads the Winners
The NFL trade deadline passed Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET. 'NFL football trade deadline' is a top U.S. trending search at 10,000+ — here is who USA TODAY says won and lost it.
The NFL trade deadline passed at 4 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, Nov. 10, and the search for what it all meant kept climbing on Wednesday — 'nfl football trade deadline' sat among the top U.S. trending searches at 10,000 or more searches on the fresh Google Trends listing read by the desk.
The last big move, as USA TODAY's Nate Davis reported, came with little more than an hour to spare: the Las Vegas Raiders agreed to send 38-year-old quarterback Kirk Cousins back to the Minnesota Vikings for a third-round pick in the 2027 draft, a day after Minnesota's offense failed to score a touchdown in a 23-6 Monday night loss to Buffalo. Cousins, who threw 20 touchdown passes for Las Vegas, returns to the team where he spent six seasons, and Davis counted Cousins, the Vikings and receiver Justin Jefferson — who produced his best seasons catching Cousins's passes — among the deadline's winners.
Davis called Chicago's earlier acquisition of All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons potentially the most impactful trade of the past six weeks, noting the Bears have won both games since Simmons arrived, while the Tennessee Titans' painful reset left them holding two first-round picks and two second-round picks next year and two firsts in 2028. Jacksonville was a split verdict: aggressive winners in the locker room after obtaining safety Jessie Bates III and defensive tackles Jordan Davis and Davon Godchaux, but losers on the future ledger for the draft capital spent.
The names that did not move drew their own verdicts. Running backs including Indianapolis's Jonathan Taylor, Philadelphia's Saquon Barkley and Baltimore's Derrick Henry were floated as targets and all stayed put, which Davis read as a statement about the position's trade value. For Austin's NFL audience, the deadline's shape is now set: contenders loaded up, rebuilders banked picks, and the Cousins reunion in Minnesota is the move the rest of the NFC has to answer.
