Late Wednesday evening, the Broncos announced that their trade for Chargers LB Daiyan Henley was off. On Tuesday prior to the deadline, the Chargers previously agreed to trade Henley for a 2027 4th and 2028 5th-round pick in return. Henley reportedly had his physical in Denver on Wednesday per ESPN's Jeff Legwold. A failed physical was rumored to be the cause of the trade not being finalized.
Initially, the injury was thought to be Henley's shoulder which had popped up on the injury report recently. But Ian Rapoport reported that Henley's knee was flagged in the physical. ProFootballTalk's Mike Florio then reported that arthritis was found in Henley's knee (not uncommon amongst NFL players in general).
Chargers HC Jim Harbaugh effectively accuses the Broncos of blackmail in failed LB Daiyan Henley trade.
Harbaugh stepped up to the podium for the first time since the failed physical and nixing of the trade:
"The Broncos based a pass/fail on a medical grade on whether we would take less compensation," Harbaugh said.
This lined up with what was reported by Rapoport earlier in the morning in terms of the Broncos offering alternate packages relative to what was originally agreed upon.
Harbaugh said clearly that the Broncos did agree to pass Henley's physical if the Chargers reduced the previously agreed upon terms of a 4th and 5th-round pick.
The Chargers head coach implored the league to look into the failed physical loopholes. Currently by the rules, what the Broncos did is allowed in asking for a compensation renegotiation. But obviously, the timing of the trade deadline pinched Los Angeles in a way that made getting compensation or any other moves after the fact impossible.
Earlier this year, the Ravens infamously backed out of a trade to acquire Raiders EDGE Maxx Crosby based on what they found in his knee. This Chargers-Broncos story followed a very similar script that is seemingly becoming more common.
To me, it seems like the Broncos ultimately either wanted to shake the Chargers down on compensation or got cold feet on the trade. Until more comes out, flagging arthritis in Henley's knee feels like a rather weak reason to try to renegotiate in NFL terms.
At the same time, Harbaugh and GM Joe Hortiz waited until after the Texans game to start actively negotiating trades. For weeks, the team maintained a no sellers stance within media reporting until they lost vs. Houston. Had they negotiated some trades and got some draft capital weeks ago (like during their BYE week, for example), the fallout from the failed Henley trade wouldn't be quite as bad. They'd at least have some picks and draft capital to fall back on.
Instead, Henley is awkwardly a Charger again and they left the deadline at 0-8 with no trades. Again, I'm of the thinking that the Chargers should not be blamed for the Broncos trade falling through. But the Henley trade failing on them with no time left to make any other trades is a result of how they treated the rest of the deadline.
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