It’s trade deadline day in the NFL and with it will undoubtedly come a flurry of movement across the league as teams look to reinforce but how does it work?
Can NFL teams sign players after the trade deadline? In what cases?
The NFL trade deadline is here on the back of Week 9 of the 2025 season, and contending teams have one last chance to add to their rosters before the stretch run of the regular season. The league, its Players Association, and the franchise owners have a set of rules, or players’ rights, governed by the collective bargaining agreement. The most recent CBA agreement was launched in March of 2020 and will go through till the 2030 season. There are five categories to a players’ rights: trade eligibility, trade procedure, trade limitations, waivers, and transfer.
So, can NFL teams make trades right now?
The NFL’s trade deadline will fall at 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Nov. 4, after which teams will no longer be able to make trades between them. To be clear, NFL Teams are permitted to discuss trades to work out the details ahead of time, however, they cannot make deals official until the start of the new league year, which generally begins in March.
A deal for Dallas: Cowboys are finalizing a trade to acquire Bengals MLB Logan Wilson, sources tell me and Todd Archer. Earlier Monday, Jerry Jones told Stephen A. Smith that the Cowboys have made a trade ahead of Tuesday’s NFL deadline. It is expected to be for Wilson, for whom… pic.twitter.com/lhQak0jaHG
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 4, 2025
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Players may still find themselves on a new team deadline through the waiver process. If a player is waived between February 1 and the trade deadline, then the player is a free agent and can negotiate a contract with any other team.
On the other hand, if the team waives a player after the trade deadline, then that player is subject to the waiver claim process, which grants them additional rights based on whether they have a no-trade clause or not. The waivers go in reverse order of NFL standings.
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