It was all smiles at the Denver Broncos facility Wednesday. One day prior, the reigning AFC West champions had dealt a 2027 fourth-round pick and 2028 fifth-rounder to the Los Angeles Chargers for linebacker Daiyan Henley.Henley spent nearly an hour with general manager George Paton. He toured the facilities. He created social media content for the team. The Broncos even gave him a tablet with the defensive playbook to get him started on things during their bye week.And then he had to return the tablet. There was a hangup in the trade; in just a few hours, Henley would be returning to L.A.I talked with sources on all sides of this and across the league, and what I gathered is that each team is certain they went about things the right way.In the latest What I’m Hearing column, I’ll have nuggets on:• The timing on Lamar Jackson’s thumb surgery;• Trend watch for the upcoming coaching cycle;• Why the Colts did what they did (and didn’t do);• What Thursday night showed us about the Commanders;• Jerry Jones’ 18-games claim, and why it’s hard to envision;• The NFL’s onside kick problem;• Cam Newton on Bryce Young;• Titans off the air.But first, the trade that wasn’t.(Editor’s note: For this column, team and league sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a player on another team or a matter on which they are not authorized to speak publicly.)
Daiyan Henley is back in Los Angeles for now, though both the Chargers and Broncos plan on targeting him in free agency. (Ryan Sirius Sun / Getty Images)League sources say Henley, a fourth-year linebacker, has a known knee issue but it hasn’t prevented him from playing and hasn’t required surgery. He has played in all but one game since 2024, and he has played in 87 percent of the Chargers’ defensive snaps this season.The winless Chargers had no desire to deal players, much to the chagrin of contending teams hoping to pick over their roster. The deadline neared, and teams called on Henley. The Chargers had a fourth-round offer on the table for the linebacker, who is scheduled to be a free agent in March, but they wanted more for one of their best players.After considerable back-and-forth, the Broncos added a 2028 fifth-round pick to get it over the finish line. The Chargers dealt their young, well-liked team captain to Denver with a hope that they could actually re-sign him come March. Being able to get two mid-round picks for Henley only to lose him for half of a lost season would be a coup for the team.The Broncos were aware they might not be able to re-sign Henley in the offseason. Part of Denver’s calculus was that, at worst, he would play so well and be so unaffordable that Denver would get a 2028 compensatory pick after he later signed a big deal elsewhere.But according to sources in Denver, the medical information the Broncos received did not match what they were learning in real-time after consulting with their own medical team and an independent doctor. The deadline had passed; Paton had a decision to make.Paton could have proceeded with the agreed-upon deal. He could have outright failed Henley on the physical and sent him back to L.A. He chose option three, which was to attempt to rework the trade terms with the Chargers.Paton pitched numerous options to the Chargers, per sources, and that is within league rules — Denver consulted with the NFL Management Council. The league would have allowed the pick compensation to change, but a league source says the NFL prohibited adding another player or trading a different player.Those options Paton pitched included a straight fourth, which the Chargers declined. A fourth and a pick swap was also declined. A fourth and a seventh was turned down. There is a dispute among sources about which side offered this, but I can report that there was a discussion from one side about a fourth plus a conditional fifth that would trigger if Denver signed Henley to an extension at or around the start of the 2027 league year.The Chargers, multiple sources say, were not interested in renegotiating the deal, believing they had been truthful in their exchanges. L.A. felt as though the passed deadline was being used as leverage; the Bolts would have little recourse but to agree to lesser terms or awkwardly accept the player back. The Broncos felt as though they did what they could to rework a deal with dignity and respect for a player who, according to a league source, they still hope to sign in free agency.General managers and top executives I spoke with this week had varying opinions on what happened.“You either walk away or do the deal,” says one GM. “You can’t leverage a deadline for a better deal.”Says a top executive with another team: “This type of thing happens more often than people realize. The original club either doesn’t know the extent of an injury or downplays it. When the new club does their examination they determine there’s additional risk. They either don’t take the deal or renegotiate the deal. Not a great situation to be in on either side but it happens. The deadline is what makes it look more nefarious.”Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh made that point on Thursday, saying the league should look into closing a “loophole. … They told us they weren’t going to pass him if it was a fourth and a fifth, which was agreed upon, and they would not pass him for that. They would pass him for a fourth and a … fill in the blank. I don’t know what to call that.”Harbaugh’s other point was that a physical should be pass/fail. In Henley’s case, Denver would have passed him physically for less compensation. The Broncos believe, and the league rules stipulate, that they are well within their rights to do that.Considering the number of trades that did not happen in 2026, I expect there to be offseason conversations with the league and competition committee about changes to the rules. The Baltimore Ravens backed out of the Maxx Crosby deal in March when they had issues with the long-term outlook on his knee after going through his physical. A key difference: There was no deadline pressure. Sources said at the time that Ravens GM Eric DeCosta did not attempt to renegotiate the deal.On Tuesday, the Philadelphia Eagles agreed to trade Arnold Ebiketie to the Cincinnati Bengals for a 2027 sixth-round pick pending a physical. But an hour later Cincinnati broke its agreement when it learned it would also very likely cost the team a 2027 third-round compensatory pick.
That same day the New York Jets sent safety Andre Cisco to the Detroit Lions for a 2028 sixth-round pick that later was adjusted to a 2029 sixth-round pick. Sources tell me that change, over something described as minor, was requested by the Lions and agreed to by the Jets.In the end, the Chargers will work to mend any potential hard feelings with their homegrown player. The Broncos go forward with their Super Bowl pursuits without a good, young linebacker. And both teams think they will be able to sign Henley five months from now.The Ravens are holding on after Lamar Jackson’s thumb surgeryLamar Jackson had surgery on his right thumb last week, I’m told. The Ravens said explicitly in their statement that “recovery timelines are challenging to predict,” but did offer a six-to-10-week timeline.The full 10 weeks would put Jackson back on the field either in Week 18 against the Bengals or in the wild-card round.The Ravens are 4-5 and hoping Jacoby Brissett can salvage their season, beginning Monday against the Chargers. The team made clear in a statement attributed to coach Jesse Minter, that it won’t be throwing in the towel on the second half of the season.“(Jackson) is doing everything he can to get back, and we will let his progress guide the timing of his return,” the statement reads. “We are committed to playing our best football over the second half of the season.”The Ravens are 2 ½ games behind the Steelers and Bengals for the division lead and 2 ½ games out of a wild-card spot going into this weekend’s games.What most of the division leaders have in commonWe are halfway through the season and every head coach from Week 1 still has his job. For now.If recent history holds, a quarter of the league will turn over at head coach come January. There will be plenty of time in the next few weeks to get into hot seats, but for now I want to focus on an emerging trend that could inform what happens during the hiring cycle.Right now, six division-leading teams have head coaches who call the offensive plays. The other two first-place teams are the New York Giants under John Harbaugh and the Carolina Panthers under Dave Canales, who just relinquished play-calling duties this season.Meanwhile, of the eight fourth-place teams, six of them are led by defensive play callers or CEO-type coaches. Of the teams bringing up the caboose in their divisions, only the Arizona Cardinals with Mike LaFleur and Green Bay Packers with Matt LaFleur (in the most competitive division in football) have offensive play callers.“I don’t think you can sustain long-term success in this league unless you create a schematic advantage offensively,” says one team executive who raised this point to me recently.There are 17 head coaches who call offensive plays, seven who call defense and eight who call neither. Right now the leading teams are operated by offensive play callers and the bottom teams aren’t.The Colts’ calculation at the deadlineOne of the buzziest buzzwords in all of sports right now is “optionality.”Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens used it in explaining his decision to trade Jaylen Brown this summer. It creeped into my lexicon this past week when describing what Howie Roseman and the Eagles are doing. And I think it perfectly describes what the Indianapolis Colts have been doing, even if it confused some people around the league.Sources I spoke with do not get the impression that Colts owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon knows what she wants in the next general manager. And that’s OK — there’s plenty of time to figure that out. What interim GM Ed Dodds did the past few weeks was give the organization flexibility moving forward.Dodds dealt three players on expiring deals: Quenton Nelson, DeForest Buckner and Keenan Allen. They have a mean age of 32 years, and the youngest of them (Nelson, 30) just had a minor knee procedure. Sources believe the Colts got fair-market value for those players.Wide receiver Josh Downs went to Kansas City for a fourth- and a fifth-round pick, and the Colts weren’t going to part with him for anything less. Once that price was reached, especially after his request out of town, the team acquiesced.But the Colts weren’t high on dealing Daniel Jones, who played well before his torn Achilles last year. Anecdotally, it appears players are better two years out from Achilles tears, and Jones tore his 11 months ago. Though he hasn’t played well lately, the hope is he will improve.And Jones needs a quality running back in Jonathan Taylor, whom the Colts might have overvalued these past few weeks. League sources aren’t sure a deal of a second and fifth will be on the table for Taylor in March, so it could be easy to say Indy should have dealt him this past week.But by trading players on expiring deals and keeping a quality running back like Taylor and a quarterback who could improve (but could also be released before the team pays him $38 million more), Dodds has created optionality for the next GM. That GM could be Dodds himself, who has been on short lists across the league the last few years, or it could be an outsider.A load off of Dan QuinnThere might not be a bigger victory this season than the one Washington enjoyed Thursday night against the Giants. It put the Commanders right back in the mix in the NFC East and took some pressure off head coach Dan Quinn for the time being.At 3-5-1, the Commanders are third in the division but only two games behind the Giants. And Washington owns the tiebreaker over Big Blue thanks to going 1-0-1 against them this year.“This thing is wide open,” a Commanders source says. “DQ isn’t losing this locker room.”
VICTORY. FRIDAY!!! pic.twitter.com/JTI9L4ABcg
— Washington Commanders (@Commanders) November 13, 2026Five of the next six games for the Giants are against teams with winning records. Meanwhile, just two of the next six for the Commanders come against teams above .500.The noise was getting loud in Washington, and there’s no guarantee it will go away, but for now, the Commanders get a much-needed reprieve.Why an agreement on 18 games likely won’t come next yearJerry Jones believes an 18-game regular-season schedule is in “everybody’s best interest” and said it’s a possibility as soon as next year. His opinion matters, but that doesn’t make it a fact.I believe there were a few chuckles within the NFL Players Association upon hearing Jones’s comments Friday. The extra game will mean billions more for the owners and players, but to think that happens within months is farfetched.Tom DePasso is the outgoing general counsel for the NFLPA. The union has yet to hire his replacement after just installing JC Tretter as its executive director eight months ago. Simply put: It would be foolish for the union to open negotiations with the league without its top lawyer.The current CBA runs through the 2030 season, and I don’t sense the players are in a rush to re-do the deal.The NFL has an onside kick problemThrough nine weeks (plus one game) there have been 22 onside-kick attempts and zero recoveries. It is the latest in an NFL season we’ve gone (since 2000) without even one onside recovery.The league wants the recovery rate to be around 10 percent, and last year there were five recoveries on 52 attempts. There’s still half the season left, but a lot of good bounces need to happen for the NFL to get to that mark this season.The league hasn’t been able to nail down how to fix the onside kick. When the league eliminated the running start on kickoffs in 2018, the onside took a big hit. Once the dynamic kickoff entered the game and killed the surprise onside kick, it all but perished.League execs have admitted they focused more on getting the kickoff fixed than figuring out the onside, and there’s no way the surprise onside will come back. But if the rates stay low, I could see the league spending a lot of attention on this in the offseason.The easiest fix would probably be to have the kicking team 1 yard in front of the ball, making them have to cover only 9 yards and increase the chances of recovering the kick. It will look funky, but so does the kickoff that we all have gotten used to.The fourth-and-long alternative might get pitched again after years of going nowhere, but that still seems like a long shot given how critical teams and fans have been about defensive penalties.It should not be easy to recover an onside kick, but it can’t be impossible.Cam Newton on Bryce YoungOn Thursday I was fortunate to catch up with Cam Newton for an interview about his new Amazon Prime series “4th & 1 Presents: Quarterback Club.”Newton and I have known each other since 2012 when I was a cub beat reporter at the Charlotte Observer and he was the Offensive Rookie of the Year taking Charlotte and the NFL by storm. I learned a great deal while covering him (fairly, I hope). I have always felt fortunate to have covered those Panthers teams.We spoke for a half-hour and I asked him for his thoughts on Bryce Young, the fourth-year starter in Carolina who has the 3-5 Panthers atop the NFC South (barely). Here’s what Newton had to say:“It’s very important for Bryce and other quarterbacks to kind of understand your road to your standard will have many different turns and twists, peaks and valleys. The important thing is that you are able to, No. 1, find any way to win. If you win, everything else can be forgiven. But if you’re not winning, then it puts more of the onus on, why aren’t we winning?“So now if I’m [Panthers GM] Dan Morgan and I’m analyzing the team and I was saying like, hey, our issue isn’t a quarterback. Our issue is the talent around the quarterback. Hey, maybe it’s a guard. Hey, it’s the center. Maybe we beef up the defensive line to the identity of the team that we want. So for Bryce, he can’t get caught up in everybody else. He just has to focus and stay headstrong to what he knows that he has to do. And Bryce has played exceptionally well at times. And there’s been times where he wished he could have some throws back.”Newton then mentioned the Young interception toward the end of the third quarter against the Broncos. It goes on the quarterback’s ledger, but it involved a multi-tipped ball that, after a controversial coaches review, was ruled an interception for the Broncos. (By the way, there were some sources who told me last week the Panthers should have gotten a play off sooner than they did. Carolina didn’t snap the ball until eight seconds remained on the playclock, which was just enough time for Sean Payton to throw the red flag.)“And then you look at a situation last week, what do you call that interception? You know what I’m saying? When it hits the elbow, hits the knee, hits the toe, it’s like, man, goodness gracious. And you definitely can’t say he ain’t living, right? Because if anybody’s living right — this is the same person that prays for each and every injured player on the field.“So he’s a guy that’s so likable that it’s easy for him to have won everywhere that he’s been, to taste last year’s playoff impact. But he can’t be deterred. What this league has taught me: Unfortunately, you’re going to lose. But in those losses, how are you optimistic about taking what you did great and building off of that?”Tough to see the Titans in TennesseeIt was fascinating to see on the television maps this week that a good portion of Tennessee won’t see the home team play on Sunday. The Titans host the Jaguars and the eastern part of the state will tune into Fox and see the Vikings play the Packers.Teams in smaller markets don’t always get broadcast into every home in their state. For example, parts of North Carolina along the Virginia border will show the Commanders over the Panthers when the two play at the same time on the same network. But, essentially, the part of Tennessee in the Eastern time zone won’t get the Titans game tomorrow.It speaks to how little of a draw the franchise is right now. The Titans are 1-7 and have among of the worst attendance in the league. The Jaguars have the three least-attended home games this season, but that’s because their home stadium has a capacity of 42,500 while renovations are ongoing. If you remove Jacksonville home games, the least attended game this year was Texans at Titans in Week 5.That game had an announced attendance of 52,097. Under the old TV blackout rules, that would have easily qualified for the game to not be aired locally. It seems clear Fox — and the league — want to have better games shown in more homes.