The NFL trade deadline has a reputation for being extremely boring compared to other professional sports leagues, but that hasn't been the case for a couple of years.
Teams have shown, both on deadline day and in the weeks leading up to it, that they are more willing to wheel and deal during the season. That was the case at the 2026 deadline, with a number of impact players moving to new teams and drastically affecting their new franchises immediately.
Heading into Week 10 action, which games are the most affected by the moves that were made at the deadline? We're going to take a look at the top three.
3 games most affected by the NFL Trade Deadline in Week 10 action
Jacksonville Jaguars @ Tennessee Titans
The AFC South matchup between the Jaguars and Titans in Week 10 has been dramatically affected by the trade deadline in multiple ways.
Let's start off by talking about the aggressiveness of the Jacksonville Jaguars, who gave up a 1st-round pick in 2027 (and a 2nd-round pick in 2029) to acquire defensive tackle Jordan Davis. After losing DaVon Hamilton to a season-ending torn quadriceps injury, they knew they had to go out and address their defensive line, and the Eagles were willing to play ball.
They were also able to add Davon Godchaux in a trade with the Saints to upgrade the depth on the defensive front.
Even though the "biggest" trade the Jaguars made was to acquire Jordan Davis, maybe the best player they got was safety Jessie Bates from the Atlanta Falcons. Jacksonville gave up a 2027 2nd-round pick to get Bates, along with a 2028 5th-rounder.
Bates has been named a 2nd-team All-Pro three times, and has only had one season in his NFL career with fewer than 3 interceptions. He already has 3 forced fumbles and an interception so far this season.
The Jaguars added all that to their defense while the Titans subtracted Jeffery Simmons (Bears) and Amani Hooker (Bills) from theirs.
Even though the Titans were able to add future draft capital for those guys -- and some really good picks, at that -- it feels like they could have done a little bit more at the trade deadline.
It's going to be interesting to see just how the two different directions of these franchises manifests in the matchup on Sunday.
Kansas City Chiefs @ Atlanta Falcons
We already mentioned the Atlanta Falcons traded away safety Jessie Bates to the Jacksonville Jaguars, so this will be their first game without him. But the Falcons' defense is going to have to face off against a Kansas City Chiefs offense that now features a brand-new weapon.
That new weapon is wide receiver Josh Downs, who was acquired in a deadline deal with the Indianapolis Colts.
The Colts approached the deadline with one of the strangest strategies we've seen in some time, but the Chiefs aren't going to complain. They got Downs, and he could be a really important part of their pursuit of regaining the AFC West crown as well as the #1 seed in the AFC.
After losing Tyquan Thornton to injury this season, the Chiefs very clearly needed to upgrade at receiver. Downs gives them a great weapon out of the slot with strong hands. We'll see how his chemistry is right away with Patrick Mahomes.
Minnesota Vikings @ Green Bay Packers
This was already going to be one of the most interesting matchups of Week 10, but the Vikings' trade to acquire quarterback Kirk Cousins might have it firmly in the top "must watch" slot of the week.
Cousins threw 20 touchdown passes in the first half of the season with the Las Vegas Raiders. He was balling at a level nobody really expected heading into the season, and the Vikings were lucky the Raiders were so willing to move him at the deadline.
Minnesota sent the Raiders a 3rd-round pick for Cousins, and suddenly it feels like they have raised their floor significantly for the rest of the 2026 season.
We'll see how quickly Cousins can reacclimate himself to Minnesota, but he's a veteran who has been around the block a time or two. He's going up against a Green Bay Packers defense that has been absolutely dominant the last handful of weeks, especially in the takeaway department.
The Vikings have lost two in a row, but are believing that Cousins coming in and raising the level of quarterback play is going to complement their dominant defense perfectly.
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