Nothing happens in a vacuum in the NFL. Just look at last year’s trade deadline, when there were plenty of rumblings about Myles Garrett wanting out of Cleveland. By training camp, he was in Los Angeles. Funny how that works.

Conversations are ongoing. Ideas and trade options that are floated in-season, but were not consummated for any numbers of reasons, can be quickly brought back to life, say, at the scouting combine this winter. Nothing is forgotten, and a host of NFL teams will have new coaches and general managers by February. Don’t think for a minute that some of the names that came up in trade talks this fall — whether out in the open or hush-hush — won’t be on new teams by Week 1 next season.

It’s the nature of the business, and with NFL teams more open to trades than ever before, these dynamics aren’t changing anytime soon. Rival front offices were able to glean just what some teams really think of their best players and how available they might be this offseason, when more suitors enter the market, hope springs eternal around the NFL and owners still have money to spend.

Each year, the free agent class looks less and less impressive, and there will be blockbusters coming not that long after the Super Bowl. Just watch. Several of these players very much could be on the move.

1. Justin Herbert

We reported teams would be calling. Some did and more will after the season, assuming Herbert doesn’t suffer a significant injury. The Chargers can abstain from the trade deadline all they want, but real problems persist there. People around the NFL aren’t convinced Jim Harbaugh will be there much longer, and it’s going to be almost impossible to rebuild around Herbert. Trading him would be far easier, especially since his contract isn’t bad.

The Eagles, Ravens and Vikings could all be QB-needy and looking for a winner right now who is not a rookie. There will be a market, even in this lost season.

2.     Maxx Crosby

He was effectively dealt last March. That was a done deal to Baltimore as far as the Raiders were concerned. They aren’t going to get two first-round picks like the Ravens had on the table, but execs think they can get one, plus a day-two pick. And with that defense still in deep disrepair, the Raiders are going to need to load up on potential young blue-chip players on that side of the ball. They are still going to be two offseasons away from competing. "I don't think he plays out this contract there," one GM told me of Crosby in Vegas.

3.     Jonathan Taylor

The idea that a RB entering his age 28 season with only a few years of team control on a tanking franchise isn’t available is crazy. There has been constant drama in Indy since firing GM Chris Ballard in season, and a lot to juggle. But taking a top 50 pick for him, come this offseason, is going to start making a lot of sense to whatever new regime is in charge there. You don't rip this apart as much as they did and try to run it back with him and Daniel Jones at QB in 2027. Sorry.

4. Derwin James

The Chargers are the worst team in football by quite some margin, and they also don’t have nearly as much draft capital as will be necessary to right this thing anything soon. Once Herbert is gone, dealing James will make even more sense. (The 49ers or Packers wouldn’t want their version of the hybrid LB/S/Nickel Joker that is all the rage right now?) If he wasn’t hurt at the deadline, one GM we spoke to believes he would have been gone.

5.     Josh Sweat

The Cardinals had an odd offseason, and they are churning through QBs. But they are still in full rebuild mode, they will be playing a kid QB next season, and this might not be rock bottom. We don’t see Sweat wanting to stick that out unless Arizona made financial concessions, and they should be coveting draft picks.

Sweat could have appeal to any number of contending teams, and this is a trade that may make even more sense right after the first round in the draft for a team that couldn’t land the pass rusher it wanted with its top pick. "I thought he'd be in Dallas already," one longtime NFL personnel exec told me.

One More For Good Measure: Lamar Jackson

He doesn’t really apply here, since he has never been the subject of trade talks — even somehow when he was on a non-exclusive franchise tag able to talk to any team— and the deadline was never going to happen with him on IR after thumb surgery. But he has all the leverage in the world over the Ravens, and people in the know, like former NFLPA honcho Mark Levin, who helped him negotiate his prior contract, are pretty convinced that the end is near in Baltimore.