Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton and, really, general manager George Paton are under fire over the Daiyan Henley trade, which they backed out of late Wednesday night, and Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh is leading the push.
“The Broncos based a pass/fail on a medical grade based on whether we would take less compensation. And we wouldn’t, and we didn’t,” Harbaugh told reporters on November 12. “In my opinion, it’s one of those loopholes that the league should really look into. Because it sets a bad precedent, and continues to set a bad precedent.”
Reporters asked how and why the Broncos backed out of the deal. Harbaugh said they shouldn’t have been.
He emphasized that “teams should not have the ability to do that.”
“It’s a medical grade. It’s a past/fail for a medical grade. And they told us they weren’t going to pass them if it was a fourth and a fifth, which was agreed upon,” Harbaugh said. “They would not pass him for that. They would pass him for a fourth and a fill in the blank. And yeah, that was–I don’t know what to call that. But that’s what it is.”
The Chargers coach’s full comments:
Reporters also asked Harbaugh how Henley is presumably healthy enough to play for the Chargers and not the Broncos. Henley has been on the injury report this season but has not missed a game,
“It’s confusing to me, too. There’s a loophole there that gives them the opportunity to do that,” Harbaugh said, noting that “it should be looked into” by the NFL. “Medical grades should be based on past/fail, what the medical grade is. Not being used by an organization to get less compensation for a trade that was agreed upon.”
There is an apparent explanation, though.
“Per source, the league was consulted + approved of the #Broncos asking to revisit the comp. It’s happened before,” The Denver Post’s Parker Gabriel reported on X on November 12. “The information the Chargers provided before the trade did not match what the Denver found during the physical, source said, so the club attempted to revisit the compensation.”
Broncos Under Fire Over Nixed Daiyan Henley Trade
Harbaugh was not the first person to call the Broncos’ methods out after the two sides canceled the trade for Henley. First, ESPN’s Adam Schefter noted that the situation was not as out of the ordinary as it seems.
“It is not uncommon for one team to have some medical concerns about a player while another does not. In this case, Denver had concerns about Henley following his physical,” Schefter reported in a post on X on November 12, adding, “Even then, the Broncos still wanted Henley with Denver and LA discussing revised trade alternatives throughout the day, taking into account those concerns. In the end, no agreement was reached. The deal was off.”
It is not uncommon for one team to have some medical concerns about a player while another does not. In this case, Denver had concerns about Henley following his
Pro Football Talk reported that Henley has “arthritis” in his knee.
“As one source with neither the Chargers nor the Broncos told PFT, most if not all starting linebackers in the NFL have some degree of arthritis in their knees,” PFT’s Mike Florio wrote on November 12, later noting, “The fact that the rules allow trade terms to be renegotiated after the deadline opened the door for the Broncos to squeeze the Chargers.
“This little-known ability to extend the trading period by giving the acquiring team the ability to use the physical to leverage better terms shouldn’t exist. When a deal is done at the deadline, the trade should either go through for the agreed terms or it shouldn’t.”
Florio noted the potential for “shenanigans” and “gamesmanship.” He also said that does not mean the Broncos “deliberately” tried to shake the Chargers down.
The insider called for the NFL to change the rule, shutting down negotiations after the deadline.
Denver Broncos Blamed After Exploiting ‘Loophole’ in NFL Rules