Jonathan Allen and A’Shawn Robinson lined up as All-SEC defensive linemen for Alabama’s 2015 CFP national-championship team. Although they play for different NFL teams now, Allen and Robinson are together again in a way – left behind in the NFC East after Tuesday’s trade deadline.

After Allen’s Washington Commanders lost to Robinson’s New York Giants 14-7 on Oct. 22, Allen said: “It’s been seven (expletive) years of the same (expletive). I’m tired of this (expletive).”

Then Washington lost to the Philadelphia Eagles 38-31 on Sunday. But while Allen said he’s tired of the Commanders’ losing, that wasn’t the same as saying he wanted to be traded, although it seemed some made that connection and inferred the defensive tackle wished to be moved at the NFL trade deadline.

Allen addressed that speculation on Monday.

“If I wanted a trade, I would have came out and said it publicly,” Allen said during an appearance on “The Sports Junkies” on WJFK-FM. “I’m focused on what I can do to help this team win now. And about the future, we’ll see what happens. As of right now and the rest of this season, my goal is to help this team win.”

That goal appeared to get a lot harder on Tuesday, when the Commanders traded starting defensive ends Montez Sweat and Chase Young to the Chicago Bears and the San Francisco 49ers, respectively, for draft picks.

With a 3-5 record ahead of Sunday’s season-midpoint game against the 2-6 New England Patriots, perhaps no team threw in the towel harder on the 2023 campaign at the trade deadline than Washington.

The Giants also traded a pass-rusher at the trade deadline. But sending Leonard Williams to the Seattle Seahawks didn’t have the same feel as the Commanders’ trades. At 2-6 after Sunday’s 13-10 loss to the New York Jets – a game the Giants could have/should have won despite netting minus-9 passing yards – the team didn’t have a towel left to throw in.

The Giants will be counting on two players with Alabama football roots when they play on Sunday against the Las Vegas Raiders, which made a splash on trade-deadline day – not with a deal but by firing coach Josh McDaniels and general manager David Ziegler. It’s the first of three straight road games for New York.

Giants coach Brian Daboll said he has “a lot of trust” in the players slotted to take up the slack on New York’s defensive line – Robinson and Rakeem “Nacho” Nunez-Roches, who prepped at Central-Phenix City.

Pro Bowl nose tackle Dexter Lawrence echoed that sentiment on Wednesday.

“I still trust the guys in the room like A’Shawn, who has been playing well these last couple of games; Nacho, who has been playing well the whole season,” Lawrence said. “The bond with them has been good as well. We’ve just got to keep going and going. It’s the nature of the business. …

“Obviously, he’s Leonard Williams. He’s a great football player and going to be hard to replace something like that. The thing is everybody doesn’t have to be a Leonard Williams, everybody doesn’t have to be a Dexter Lawrence. Nacho has to be a Nacho. AR has to be an AR, and they’re still good players that can play in this league, that have played in this league for a long time. So I don’t want to hear the things about how do we replace Leonard? You can’t replace Leonard. He’s only one of one, so the next guys got to step up and do their job.”

FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE

The Alabama Game of the Week is the Dallas Cowboys-Philadelphia Eagles contest on Sunday. Fifteen players from Alabama high schools and colleges are on the teams’ active rosters.

The Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions, Jacksonville Jaguars and San Francisco 49ers do not play this week.

The complete Week 9 schedule (with all times Central and point spreads from Catena):

Thursday

· Tennessee Titans at Pittsburgh Steelers (-2.5), 7:15 p.m. (Prime Video)

Sunday

· Miami Dolphins vs. Kansas City Chiefs (-1.5) in Frankfurt, Germany, 8:30 a.m. (NFL Network)

· Minnesota Vikings at Atlanta Falcons (-4.5), noon (WBRC, WZDX, WALA, WCOV, WDFX)

· Seattle Seahawks at Baltimore Ravens (-5.5), noon

· Arizona Cardinals at Cleveland Browns (-8), noon

· Los Angeles Rams at Green Bay Packers (-3), noon

· Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Houston Texans (-2.5), noon

· Washington Commanders at New England Patriots (-3.5), noon

· Chicago Bears at New Orleans Saints (-8.5), noon (WIAT, WHNT, WKRG, WAKA, WTVY)

· Indianapolis Colts (-2.5) at Carolina Panthers, 3:05 p.m.

· New York Giants at Las Vegas Raiders (-1.5), 3:25 p.m.

· Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles (-3), 3:25 p.m. (WBRC, WZDX, WALA, WCOV, WDFX)

· Buffalo Bills at Cincinnati Bengals (-2), 7:20 p.m. (NBC)

Monday

· Los Angeles Chargers (-3) at New York Jets, 7:15 p.m. (ABC, ESPN)

CHECK OUT MAPS OF SUNDAY’S BROADCAST TV COVERAGE

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.