NFL trade deadline: Fantasy impact of Rashid Shaheed, Jakobi Meyers trades

Things are shaking up across the NFL today with the trade deadline quickly approaching at 4 p.m. ET. With this week marking the midway point of the 2025 regular season, we’re seeing contenders trying to fill holes and load up for a playoff push down the stretch while other teams are stockpiling future draft capital.

Of course, some of these moves will have implications on the fantasy football front and we’ll go over them below.

The New Orleans Saints dealt wide receiver Rashid Shaheed to the Seattle Seahawks for a pair of Day-3 draft picks for 2026, parting ways with the fourth-year wideout in the final year of his deal. Shaheed was one of the lone bright spots for a miserable 1-8 Saints squad and was the team’s second top receiver behind Chris Olave through nine games. The former undrafted free agent was on pace to having a career season with the Saints and with an ADP in the low-50’s heading into the season, he’s actually played his with into being a Flex/low-WR2 option for fantasy managers this season.

The good news for Shaheed managers is that he’s joining a Seahawks offense that is on fire right now with Sam Darnold dealing. The bad news is that he’s joining an offense that is already loaded with weapons like Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Kenneth Walker III, and Cooper Kupp, potentially dinging some of his fantasy value. As for the Saints, this could open the door for Olave and Juwan Johnson to get more targets as they play out the rest of this season with rookie Tyler Shough now operating the controls at quarterback.

The Las Vegas Raiders traded wide receiver Jakobi Meyers to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Tuesday, receiving a pair of Day-3 draft picks for next year in exchange. The veteran is in the final year of his contract and requested the trade during training camp after he couldn’t come to an agreement with the Raiders for a new deal.

Meyers entered the season with an average draft position in the low-40’s across multiple scoring formats and has put up modest numbers as the Raiders’ No. 2 pass-catcher this season. With Travis Hunter currently on IR with a knee injury, the Jaguars needed another receiver to complement Brian Thomas Jr. and acquired Meyers to fill that role as they try to stay in the AFC playoff hunt. He most likely won’t see a dramatic jump in production upon his arrival to Duval County, but should get enough targets to inch towards fringe sleeper territory.

As for Las Vegas, it isn’t really losing that much with Meyers’ departure considering that All-Pro tight end Brock Bowers just returned and put up a 127-yard, three touchdown performance in Sunday’s overtime loss to the Jags. Meanwhile, Tre Tucker should continue to serve as the team’s top receiver option and should continue to maintain his status as a top-30 fantasy wideout this year.

The big blockbuster trade of Tuesday was the Indianapolis Colts deciding to trade two future first-round draft picks to the New York Jets for All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner. If you read the fine print of the details, you will see that the Colts also sent Mitchell to the Big Apple as part of the package.

The 2024 second-round pick offered up meager contributions as a rookie last year and didn’t really offer up much other than a career-high 96 yards against the Rams earlier this year. However, two mistakes in that 27-20 loss proved to be fatal to Mitchell’s time in Indy. First was him fumbling what would’ve been a go-ahead touchdown right before the goal-line for a touchback and second was a holding penalty in the fourth quarter wiping a Jonathan Taylor go-ahead touchdown off the board. He was promptly put into the doghouse afterwards as he received just four targets total in the aftermath of that disastrous afternoon.

Mitchell wasn’t offering up any fantasy value beforehand and that most likely won’t change while on a Jets team that is clearly tearing everything down while prepping for the future. Meanwhile, the Colts aren’t really losing anything on offense and will continue forward as usual.