2007 National Football League's Trades

There were numerous better trades that dotted the NFL landscape for the 2007 season. Many of them had a big impact on their teams and their efforts to get into the postseason playoffs.

One of the biggest blockbusters came when New England acquired wide receiver Randy Moss from Oakland in exchange for a fourth-round pick. Moss was considered a problem child and he had run into trouble in college and in Minnesota, his first NFL stop. But New England saw Moss as perhaps the most talented wide receiver in the league; his height and athleticism, along with his great hands, made him a potentially deadly weapon when combined with New England quarterback Tom Brady. Although the Patriots had won championships with lesser receivers, Moss gave the team the big game-breaker sort of playmaker that comes only in better trades.

In another wide receiver acquisition and better trade, San Francisco acquired Darrell Jackson from Seattle for a fourth-round pick. Jackson is fast and runs good pass rounds, but had struggled recently with nagging injuries and dropped passes. He needed a change of scenery and San Francisco needed a legitimate receiver. Jackson was expected to add another dimension, since the 49ers had already added the field-stretching Ashley Lelie in a previous trade.

In a trade for what is expected to be their future quarterback, Cleveland traded draft picks to move up in the process and select Brady Quinn from Notre Dame. Is this a better trade? Many experts saw it as a reach, as Quinn had so-so speed and was rated as having a great arm. Was it worth a first-round and a second-round pick? Only if the Cowboys can turn those selections into better trades, which hasn't been the case for the organization since the departure of Jimmy Johnson.

Both the Jets and Panthers hope an exchange of picks will turn out to be a better trade. The Jets moved up to take cornerback Darrelle Revis, while the Panthers used their pick on linebacker Jon Beason. The Panthers needed to do something to solidify a position that had been hurt because of injuries to starter Dan Morgan. Beason was seen as a player with good speed and good instincts to play in the middle, thus making it one of Carolina's better trades.