We’ve seen multiple trades this year in the NFL get canceled due to newly discovered medical concerns on physicals. Since the trade cancellations can happen after the trade deadline, there is talk about possibly modifying the trade deadline rules so that a team can pursue other trades if one gets canceled.
Lions Found Medical Concerns on Andre Cisco
We now know why the Lions’ draft pick compensation for Andre Cisco changed from a 2028 6th-rounder to a 2029 6th-rounder - unexpected medical findings…
The newly discovered medical concerns for Cisco must have been minimal, as the compensation did not drop much, and the trade went through. This wasn’t the case around the league though…
Here’s the summary of what happened with the Daiyan Henley trade.
Chargers traded Henley to the Broncos for a 2027 4th and 2028 5th.
Broncos performed a physical and found a knee issue that was previously unknown or undisclosed. All NFL players have a medical file that is available to all teams. Something showed up on the physical that was not part of that file.
Broncos attempted to renegotiate the trade terms to either a 4th and 7th, or a 4th and a pick flip.
Renegotiation was unsuccessful and the trade was canceled.
The NFL was made aware throughout the entire process, which cleared the Broncos of simply getting “cold feet”. The suspicion is that Henley was found to have a chronic arthritic knee issue, per ProFootballTalk…
We saw a similar situation play out in the offseason with the nixed trade of Maxx Crosby from the Raiders to the Ravens. Crosby’s case involved unexpected knee findings that were concerning for articular damage and “arthritis”.
I explained how Crosby’s surgeon may have leaked the details of his knee issue in this article…
The Hidden Risk of Trading for Players
An unspoken and underrated risk of trading for players is that the other team has more information about the player than you do.
While the player’s medical chart is open to all teams, medical nuances may not show up. The player’s current team sees him on a day-to-day and year-to-year basis and may notice a subtle drop-off in athleticism, an increase in discomfort, an increase in recovery time, or other things that are not obvious on tape and will be absent in a chart.
Even with a full physical - including exams, workouts, and imaging - health issues can still slip through, as medical science is far from perfect. This may have happened last month with the Quenton Nelson trade from the Colts to the Seahawks. After just one game with his new team, Nelson underwent knee surgery to clean out damaged cartilage.
Buyer beware when it comes to trading for players. The risk of taking on an unknown medical issue needs to be factored into the trade compensation.