Cleveland Browns Executive Vice President of Football Operations and General Manager Andrew Berry. Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

Browns GM proposes rule change to move back trade deadline

By Aaron Becker | Last updated 2/27/24

Staffs from all 32 NFL teams are heading to Indianapolis this week for the NFL Scouting Combine. Their work is not limited to just doing homework on the 2024 NFL Draft class, however.

Browns general manager Andrew Berry used his platform on Tuesday to propose a rule change that would move back the trade deadline.

"We wanted to retroactively correct the fact that the trade deadline never moved when the season expanded to 17 games," Berry told reporters. "If you look at us compared to the other major sports leagues, baseball and basketball have their trade deadline when 65 percent of the games are played. Hockey's at 78 percent. Currently, we're at 45 percent."

#Browns GM Andrew Berry says the team is proposing a rule change to move back the trade deadline. Part of his answer: pic.twitter.com/B8DOADlrZb
— Mary Kay Cabot (@MaryKayCabot) February 27, 2024

The NFL currently employs a Week 9 trade deadline, but Berry is right that the league never adapted to the expansion of the season when it added an extra game in 2021.

So, when would Berry like to see the trade deadline moved to?

"If at some point in the future the regular season expands to 18 games, we wanted to be proactive in terms of the positioning of the trade deadline," Berry added. "Our goal is to move it to about 55 percent of the games played."

That would mean roughly moving the trade deadline from Week 9 to Week 11.

It does make sense as it would give teams a little more time to evaluate where their seasons are going and if moving on from players or trading for players is what's best at the time.

Cleveland has been one of the more active teams in the NFL over the past couple of years in terms of making trades. So, it makes sense the proposal is coming from the Browns brass.

Only time will tell if the league is interested in Berry's proposal. However, if it is planning to expand the season by another game in the future, it certainly wouldn't hurt.

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