It feels like just yesterday that the 2025 NFL season was getting underway, all 32 teams still bright-eyed with the optimism of a brand new year and a 0-0 record. But after Sunday, we're officially past the quarter mark, and that means front offices around the league are now forced to confront just how good — or not so good — they really are.
Life comes at you fast in the NFL, and a Week 5 full of some pretty ugly performances already has some teams starting to look toward the future — and specifically next month's trade deadline, a prime opportunity to recoup some assets and begin laying the foundation for success in 2026 and beyond. We're now less than a month away from the Nov. 4 deadline, and the market is coming into focus after Sunday's games. Here are five players who seem as good as gone already.
5. TE Mark Andrews, Baltimore Ravens
It feels like the clock has just about struck midnight on the Andrews era in Baltimore. The tight end caught just three passes for 22 yards in the Ravens' 44-10 debacle against the Houston Texans, the fourth time in five games this year he's finished with 30 or fewer receiving yards. As if that weren't bad enough, he also added insult to injury by turning a bobbled pass into an interception in the fourth quarter.
At 1-4 now after an embarrassing home loss to the Houston Texans, and with things potentially getting worse from here with Lamar Jackson out for at least one more week, the Ravens might soon find themselves forced to use this as a retooling year rather than making a run at a Super Bowl. both Andrews and Isaiah Likely are set to hit free agency next spring, and it seems very hard to believe that Baltmiore wants to keep the 29-year-old around given his rapidly decreasing production. Unless this season turns around in a hurry, he's likely to be playing somewhere else in a few weeks' time.
4. TE David Njoku, Cleveland Browns
Njoku's Week 5 fared a bit better, at least from a personal standpoint. He led all Cleveland Browns receivers in catches (six) and yards (67) on Sunday, emerging as Dillon Gabriel's favorite target in his first career start while also snagging a second-half touchdown.
Realistically, though, that performance is more likely to help facilitate a trade out of town rather than keep him in Cleveland beyond the expiration of his contract at the end of this season. Njoku has never quite emerged as the dynamic seam-stretcher the Browns hoped he'd be when they took him in the first round a few years ago, and with rookie Harold Fannin steadily coming on, there's no reason for a rebuilding team to pay him in free agency next offseason. He can clearly help a contender, and Cleveland needs all the future assets it can hoard right now.
3. WR Jakobi Meyers, Las Vegas Raiders
Things have somehow gone from bad to worse for the Raiders offense, which mustered just six points (while Geno Smith tossed two more interceptions) in a blowout loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. It was also another quiet day for Meyers, who's followed up his offseason trade demand by seemingly falling behind Tre Tucker in the receiver pecking order in Las Vegas.
Meyers has posted 30 and 32 receiving yards over the last two weeks, and even at his best he profiles best as a polished route-runner and complimentary piece rather than a true WR1. The Raiders clearly don't have interest in paying him, and have clearly gotten a head start on phasing him out of this passing attack. The writing was on the wall given how acrimonious this summer was, and now it's all but certain that his next contract will come somewhere else.
2. EDGE Bradley Chubb, Miami Dolphins
Another Sunday, another absolute travesty from the Dolphins' league-worst defense, which got gashed for 6.4 yards per play and a whopping 239 yards rushing in a 27-24 loss to the Carolina Panthers. Whatever Miami is doing on that side of the ball sure isn't working, and a hard reset feels necessary.
What better way to kickstart it than by finding a trade partner for Chubb, who has four sacks in five games after notching another one on Sunday but is owed more than $60 million over the next two seasons after 2025? That's a prohibitive price for a player who'll be 30 by the start of next season, especially considering that the team also has to try and lock up Jaelan Phillips as the latter hits unrestricted free agency this coming spring. If Chubb can demonstrate that he still has plenty of pass-rush juice in the tank, maybe they can dump that money on somebody else and use it to build a foundation for the future.
1. RB Alvin Kamara, New Orleans Saints
Kamara's workload has steadily decreased in recent weeks, as New Orleans shares the rushing load with TCU product Kendre Miller. Yes, the Saints just signed him to a new deal last year, and yes, this team has been loath to actually admit that it needs to rebuild, but that sure feels like some sort of writing on the wall.
Kamara has one year remaining on his contract after this one at over $18 million. He's still a useful player at age 30, but he's not the superstar he once was, and there's virtually no chance he'll be part of the next competitive Saints team. New Orleans should do whatever it can to get some value in return now while he still has more team control (and is one year younger), although given Mickey Loomis' track record, who knows.