Why is the trading deadline so early in the NFL season?
I always wondered the same. In Major League Baseball, with the trading deadline not until four months of the season has passed, there is always more activity and thus more buzz surrounding the deadline due to the late timing.
The reason stated by the NFL for the early deadline is to avoid exactly what baseball allows the opportunity to rent players for the stretch drive of seasons, thereby tipping the balance of power to the bigger spending teams.
Although there has been one of those trades already in the NFL with Randy Moss going to the Vikings from the Patriots the league would say that 13 games of a 16 game season would classify more as a true trade rather than the mercenary rental in baseball. The Cliff Lee trade this year between the Mariners and Rangers in baseball, despite its impact on the playoff races, is not what the NFL envisions with its trading deadline.
I understand the leagues desire to limit late-season hired gun acquisitions, but the early deadline limits the buzz and sizzle that trading deadlines in other leagues create.