La Canfora: Patriots Explored Trades, But 'Nothing Earth-Shattering'
BOSTON (CBS) -- Despite a whirlwind of rumors leading up to Tuesday's 4 p.m. NFL trade deadline, by 4:01 p.m. there were no moves to report.
That's not all that uncommon when it comes to the NFL and their trade deadline, but it seemed like there were a handful of teams willing to host a fire sale this year. In the end, when it came time to make some moves, the asking prices were much too high for teams looking to add.
CBS Sports' Jason La Canfora joined 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich on Wednesday morning, and said there is still some trepidation around the NFL when it comes to the trade deadline.
"This is a weird league when it comes to trades, still, and I don't think people grasp the concept of 'buyers and sellers,'" said La Canfora. "There were a lot of people last night who were scratching their heads from decent teams."
The Denver Broncos and Cleveland Browns discussed a swap for offensive lineman Joe Thomas, but the Broncos balked at giving up a 2017 first-rounder. San Francisco had told teams they were open for business on just about anyone on their roster, and it seemed like there'd be a flurry of players heading elsewhere when they gave Vernon Davis away to Denver for a pair of late-round picks on Monday. But those lofty asking prices, even for reserve players, led to a quiet deadline day.
There were also a few rumors about the Patriots bouncing around on Tuesday, but for the first time in three years they didn't make a move when the deadline came and went. La Canfora said that wasn't from a lack of trying on New England's part, but in the end they weren't going to make a trade simply to make a trade.
"They're always going to do their due diligence. They're a smart team and have been much more aggressive in the trade market than a lot of other teams. They were interested in seeing if they could add a player here and there, but nothing earth-shattering," he said. "They're always looking but they were in a position of strength. They were just going to do a deal just to do a deal and there wasn't a whole lot out there that appealed to them."
The big rumor of the day in New England was the Patriots working on a swap for Tennessee Titans corner Jason McCourty, but La Canfora said he "never heard of anything real going on there."
La Canfora also talked about the state of the Tennessee Titans, who just fired head coach Ken Whisenhunt on Tuesday, and the possibility of Peyton Manning joining that franchise in a front office role when his playing days are over.
"Do [the Titans] chase Peyton Manning to come in and be their John Elway to be their football czar at the end of the year if Peyton is done playing? If he does retire, I think he'll have [Jimmy] Haslam in Cleveland and the Adams family in Tennessee really saying, 'What will it take for you to come in and really clean this football team up?'"
