Can you feel it? The NFL is changing in ways that didn't seem possible even a couple years ago.
This according to NBC Sports NFL insider Peter King, whose most recent installment of the weekly "Football Morning in America" column was largely reported from the annual league meetings, held this year in Palm Beach, Florida.
One of the "big topics" at this year's meetings, according to King, is the series of landscape-changing blockbuster trades that have swept the league over the past year-plus.
The most recent such transaction was last week's head-turning swap that sent longtime Chiefs star Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for a boatload of draft picks. Upon landing with the Fins, the 28-year-old Hill promptly signed a rich new contract that made him the top-paid wideout in the game.
The momentous trade follows on the heels of a handful of similar stars-for-picks swaps over the past two offseasons, perhaps beginning with the Rams' acquisition last year of star quarterback Matthew Stafford from the Detroit Lions.
Hill's agent, Drew Rosenhaus, told King that the difference is palpable.
“I feel it,” veteran agent Drew Rosenhaus said Saturday. “Teams see what the Rams did. A few years ago, you’d never see trades for Matthew Stafford, Tyreek Hill, Davante Adams, Deshaun Watson, Von Miller. But you can trade big players, and you can trade lots of draft picks, and you can win.”
The Hill deal in particular may best exemplify the new phenomenon. The speedy wideout and the Chiefs had been negotiating a potential extension behind the scenes, but the Chiefs also gave Rosenhaus permission to seek a trade. Rosenhaus promptly contacted every team in the league to gauge their interest in both a trade and a potential extension. The Chiefs approved the return package, and the rest was history.
While the Chiefs ultimately held the cards, it's not hard to see the Hill deal as something of a quasi-free agency tour. Granted, not every player has the kind of leverage of a Hill, but veteran stars clearly hold considerable sway, and for cap-conscious teams, there seems to be real appeal in moving on and trying to retool through the draft.
In a league where conventional wisdom long seemed to be heavily swayed by the infamous Herschel Walker trade -- through which the Cowboys loaded up on the draft picks that would help them build their Super Bowl dynasty -- things seem to be changing in a hurry.
This perspective was perhaps best exemplified by Rams GM Les Snead, who sacrificed countless picks to acquire several of the veterans stars -- including Stafford, Miller, and cornerback Jalen Ramsey -- that led his team to a victory in Super Bowl LVI.
At the team's Super Bowl Parade, Snead famously wore a shirt that said "F--k them picks."
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