Armed and dangerous for 2023 … We’re hoping to get some confirmation from our GBN colleague Pigskin Paul if he puts together an analysis of the draft day trades as he has in previous years, but it is our preliminary sense that there were fewer overall trades this year than in the recent past. We also got the sense that there were fewer deals involving future picks than last year. In the end, there were 6 trades this past weekend which involved 2023 picks and none for 2024 selections. And none of the future picks were for more than 3rd round picks next year. Cleveland was the most active team in acquiring future picks this weekend as they tried to restock their 2023 draft capital after sending much of it to Houston in the Deshaun Watson trade. This weekend the Browns received a 4th round pick next year from Minnesota and a 5th from the LA Rams in a deal for CB Troy Hill. In other trades involving 2023 picks, Denver and New England acquired 3rd rounders from Indianapolis and Carolina respectively, while Jacksonville got a 4th from Tampa Bay and the LA Chargers got a 6th from Chicago.
Not surprisingly, the two teams that traded away star QBs this spring currently have the most draft capital looking ahead to 2023. In fact, Houston, which sent Watson to Cleveland earlier this year, currently has 4 extra picks for next year’s draft including extra picks in both the first and third rounds. Meanwhile, Seattle which shipped Russell Wilson to Denver has three picks above the norm including extra 1st and 2nd rounders. At the same time, according to our unofficial tally, New England, with two, is the only other team currently with more than one extra pick. On the other hand, Denver currently is down to just four picks in next year’s draft, while the LA Rams – big surprise – along with New Orleans are down 2 picks for next year. Of course, those numbers are going to change over the course of the year, especially when the compensatory picks are announced next spring. Here is the updated list of future traded picks as we currently have them.
