Forget that trade, but thanks to JSFL Today staff there is now sunlight on murky free-agent process

It's no longer a mystery who will be free agents when the trade deadline comes around (and we even know when that is!)

One thing we do know: Travis Kelce was available in the 2023 draft, so he can be protected next season prior to the 2024 draft by the Recliners, who took him with the seventh pick of the first round.

So the previously announced pre-draft draft trade of Christian McCaffrey from the Gerbils to the Tirades for Travis Kelce was voted down (we think it was 5-4 but who knows for sure) because, well, everyone else said so despite the fact that no one knew either McCaffrey or Dalvin Cook needed to be traded by last Dec. 3 or they were free agents.

Since the protected player information is not recorded anywhere on the ESPN site and is only available in some secret spreadsheet only available to the commissioner, the crack JSFL Today staff has investigated the league's archives via photo interpretation, AI and a bunch of other cool technology to bring you the absolute latest information on this. We now know the pending free agents and have made them public (see below). They must be traded by the deadline (3 a.m. EST on Dec. 1) or they go back into the draft. Two teams were affected (surprise!) last season: the Gerbils lost Christian McCaffrey and the Tirades lost Dalvin Cook.

Four teams will be affected this season: Jordan's team, the Rangers, the Beaters and the Saddles. The players protected in 2023 (pending free agents, uncovered by our investigation, are noted with an asterisk):

Jordan's As-yet Unnamed Team: Nick Chubb*

Band Aids: Ammon-Ra St. Brown (really!)

Invaiders: Garrett Wilson

Gerbils: Austin Ekeler

Rangers: Justin Jefferson*

Packers: Ja'Marr Chase

Tirades: Cooper Kupp

Recliners: Tony Pollard

Beaters: Derrick Henry*

Saddles: Jonathan Taylor*