With the NFL Draft upon us I’m sure you’ve been hearing a lot about mock drafts, and most of them include trades that are unlikely to happen. However, each of these trades is based on a specific value assigned to each pick.
Now these values are not officially assigned by the NFL, they were created by Jimmy Johnson during his time in Dallas. You can read more on that here if you’re so inclined.
To make things a little easier for you if you’d like to do your own mock draft, or just to help you make sense of some trades you’ll see in other mocks, here’s this years chart courtesy of our friends over at ramswire.
So for example, if the New Orleans Saints wanted to trade up from pick 24 to 15, the difference between those picks is 310 points. So in theory the Saints have to offer the Broncos compensation of 310 points for the Broncos to take the trade.
Of course in practice teams have to overpay, as the Broncos are foregoing the better pick with, theoretically, the better shot at getting a good player.
For example when the Jets traded up from number six to number 3 with the Colts in 2018 to select Sam Darnold, the overpaid by roughly 900 points. The same was true when the Rams moved up to take Jared Goff.
Each draft is unique, but the trade chart adds another layer of intrigue. Have fun putting together your own potential trades for this years NFL draft.
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