Roster cuts, waiver claims, and practice squads are getting all the NFL headlines, but those weren’t the only personnel moves being made over the past few days.
NFL teams also orchestrated eight trades this week.
We’ve already ranked every NFL trade from the 2024 offseason, so let’s do the same thing with the eight deals made at roster cutdowns. Which newly-acquired players will have the most significant impact in 2024?
Ranking Wednesday’s NFL Cutdown Trades by 2024 Impact
8) Chiefs Acquire TE Peyton Hendershot
- Chiefs acquire: TE Peyton Hendershot
- Cowboys acquire: Conditional 2026 seventh-round pick
Perhaps believing he couldn’t land Hendershot via waivers, Chiefs general manager Brett Veach gave up a conditional Day 3 pick to bring the former Cowboys tight end to Kansas City.
Hendershot is fourth on the Chiefs’ TE depth chart behind Travis Kelce, Noah Gray, and Jared Wiley. As such, he’ll likely see most of his action on special teams after playing 400 ST snaps over the past two seasons in Dallas.
Wiley is a rookie, so Hendershot gives K.C. more depth if it wants to take things slow with the third-round pick. Meanwhile, Gray will be a free agent next offseason.
Hendershot’s undrafted rookie free agent deal runs through 2024, but the Chiefs can retain him as a restricted free agent in 2025.
7) Saints Acquire DT John Ridgeway
- Saints acquire: DT John Ridgeway, 2025 seventh-round pick
- Commanders acquire: 2025 sixth-round pick
While the Commanders were reportedly trying to trade Ridegeway and TE Cole Turner on Tuesday, they could only recoup something for the defensive tackle. Washington cut Turner yesterday but sent Ridgeway to the Saints on Wednesday.
A 2022 Cowboys fifth-round pick out of Arkansas, Ridgeway has appeared in 32 games (six starts) for the Commanders over the past two seasons, averaging roughly 320 snaps per year.
Ridgeway is stout at 6’5″, 321 pounds, but offered brief glimpses as a pass rusher during this year’s preseason run.
Ridgeway didn’t appear to fit Dan Quinn’s system. Quinn was the Cowboys’ DC when Dallas waived Ridgeway at the end of the 2022 preseason, and he’s now Washington’s head coach.
Ridgeway will become a rotational piece for the Saints, who have Nathan Shepherd and Khalen Saunders installed as starters and hope to see more out of 2023 first-round DT Bryan Bresee.
6) Seahawks Acquire EDGE Trevis Gipson
- Seahawks acquire: EDGE Trevis Gipson
- Cowboys acquire: 2025 sixth-round pick
Talk about bad timing. The Seahawks, thinking they had enough pass-rushing options, traded Darrell Taylor to the Bears last week.
Just days later, Seattle EDGE Uchenna Nwosu suffered a sprained MCL. He’s expected to be sidelined for two to six weeks, although the Seahawks notably did not place him on injured reserve at roster cutdowns.
Gipson is a lot like Taylor. He can get after quarterbacks in obvious passing situations, but Seattle won’t want him setting the edge against the run.
Dre’Mont Jones, Boye Mafe, and Derrick Hall should handle the bulk of the Seahawks’ pass-rushing snaps. But new Seattle head coach Mike Macdonald got the most out of NFL journeymen with the Ravens and could do the same with Gipson.
5) Bills Acquire DB/KR Brandon Codrington
- Bills acquire: DB/KR Brandon Codrington, 2026 seventh-round pick
- Jets acquire: 2026 sixth-round pick
Thanks to the NFL’s new kickoff rules, Codrington might be able to make a genuine impact as a return specialist. He ran back punts and one kick for touchdowns at North Carolina Central, then broke off a 63-yard kick return for the Jets during the preseason.
Codrington is an undrafted rookie out of an FCS school. Buffalo won’t be counting on him to be an NFL defensive back from the jump, but he should stand out on special teams.
If Codrington manages a long return for the Bills while they’re playing the Jets this season, New York general manager Joe Douglas will undoubtedly hear about it.
4) Chargers Acquire DB Elijah Molden
- Chargers acquire: DB Elijah Molden
- Titans acquire: Unspecified late-round draft pick
Molden can do a little of everything. I was excited to see what new Titans defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson could get out of him after working with versatile defensive backs like Kyle Hamilton and C.J. Gardner-Johnson at his previous coaching stops.
Instead, Molden will spend 2024 with a different member of the Mike Macdonald coaching tree: Chargers DC Jesse Minter, who followed head coach Jim Harbaugh from Michigan to Los Angeles this offseason.
Molden won’t start over incumbent Chargers safeties Derwin James or Alohi Gilman, but he could be valuable in a catch-all role. He played 190+ snaps each as a free safety, box defender, and slot corner in 2023.
3) Chiefs Acquire EDGE Cameron Thomas
- Chiefs acquire: EDGE Cameron Thomas
- Cardinals acquire: 2025 seventh-round pick
Kansas City’s Hendershot acquisition wasn’t the club’s only trade on Wednesday. Veach and Co. also picked up more pass-rushing depth by sending a seventh-round choice to the Cardinals in exchange for Thomas.
The Cardinals selected Thomas in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft, but the San Diego State product has played fewer than 600 snaps and totaled just three sacks over two seasons.
Still, Thomas might’ve started to put things together during the 2024 preseason, when he posted three sacks and nine pressures for Arizona.
According to TruMedia, Thomas’ 17% pressure rate was third-best among all NFL defenders during the exhibition season (min. 50 pass-rushing snaps).
Thomas is behind George Karlaftis, Mike Danna, and Felix Anudike-Uzomah on Kansas City’s depth chart but could see rotational snaps for DC Steve Spagnuolo. The Chiefs needed another pass rusher after placing Charles Omenihu (ACL) on the PUP list yesterday.
2) Packers Acquire QB Malik Willis
- Packers acquire: QB Malik Willis
- Titans acquire: 2025 seventh-round pick
Willis, admittedly, hasn’t done much in his NFL career. In three starts, he’s completed 35 of 66 attempts for 350 yards, no touchdown, and three interceptions while adding 144 rushing yards.
Still, Willis’ potential makes him a more exciting option than Packers QB2 hopefuls Sean Clifford and Michael Pratt. Clifford was Jordan Love’s backup in 2023 after joining Green Bay as a sixth-round pick. He was cut Tuesday before being re-signed to the Packers’ practice squad.
Willis still has the alluring physical traits that made him a coveted prospect in the 2022 draft. He could be an ideal fit in Matt LaFleur’s play-action-heavy, vertical-shot scheme.
1) Titans Acquire LB Ernest Jones
- Titans acquire: LB Ernest Jones, 2026 sixth-round pick
- Rams acquire: 2026 fifth-round pick
Even if you accept that off-ball linebacker has become a devalued position in the NFL, and even if you accept that the Rams care less about off-ball linebacker than any team except maybe the Eagles, L.A.’s decision to move Jones for pennies on the dollar was still surprising.
Rams head coach Sean McVay called the Jones trade “a business decision” and suggested the linebacker’s spring knee injury played a role in the move.
Los Angeles had made it clear that Jones would not receive an extension as he entered a 2024 contract year. Former Rams offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth suggested that Los Angeles simply wanted to give a fresh start to a player who wasn’t in their long-term plans while maintaining locker-room chemistry.
It’s an outstanding move for the Titans, who will add Jones to a list of defensive offseason additions that already included cornerbacks L’Jarius Sneed and Chidobe Awuzie, safeties Quandre Diggs and Jamal Adams, linebacker Kenneth Murray, and rookie defensive tackle T’Vondre Sweat.
Jones, a former third-round pick, wore the green dot and was a captain for the Rams. He should be an immediate leader for the Titans, who could use Jones in all sorts of intriguing ways.
The 24-year-old is an excellent blitzer and led all linebackers with 37 pressures last season. Jones also improved in coverage, breaking up four passes and allowing zero TDs on 52 targets in 2023.
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