Over the years we’ve learned that only three things are certain in the NFL draft. Fans will boo the commissioner, a team will draft a kicker way too high, and Kansas City Chiefs GM Brett Veach will make a trade.
With 10 picks in the 2023 NFL draft, it’s a foregone certainty that Veach will make some sort of trade. In each of the past five drafts, Veach has traded draft capital to either move up in the draft or acquire a player. They’ve had varying degrees of success in doing so, but some of the best trades came last two years.
In 2021, the Chiefs acquired Orlando Brown Jr. ahead of the draft, plus pick No. 58 (Nick Bolton). They also traded up with the Jets to acquire Noah Gray in the fifth round. Last year, the Chiefs traded up in the first round to acquire CB Trent McDuffie. They also traded back from pick No. 50 to receive picks No. 54 (Skyy Moore) and No. 158 (Darian Kinnard).
How do NFL teams come to an agreement on the value of draft picks with trades taking place so frequently? Originally, the league used a trade value chart devised by former Dallas Cowboys’ head coach Jimmy Johnson. It was the widely accepted trade value chart in the NFL for at least a decade, but when the NFL implemented the ability to trade compensatory draft picks back in 2017, teams began to adopt their own unique systems.
In 2018, Pat’s Pulpit’s Rich Hill used some information from Patriots HC Bill Belichick to create a trade value chart that more accurately reflects what the NFL uses today. Below you’ll find the individual values of all 259 NFL draft picks this year based on Hill’s original chart:
Here is a look at the value of each of the Chiefs’ 12 picks and the total value of their picks:
- Round 1, Pick 31: 190
- Round 2, Pick 63: 82
- Round 3, Pick 95: 40
- Round 4, Pick 122 (via MIA for Tyreek Hill): 23
- Round 4, Pick 134: 17
- Round 5, Pick 166: 9
- Round 6, Pick 178 (From CHI via MIA for Tyreek Hill): 6
- Round 6, Pick 217 (Compensatory Pick): 3
- Round 7, Pick 249: 1
- Round 7, Pick 250 (Compensatory Pick): 1
Total value: 372
All 10 picks combined for Kansas City aren’t even equal to the value of the No. 9 overall pick. Teams aren’t always looking for 1-to-1 value in terms of these trades, especially if they’re using different value models. Things can get even more complex when you begin to involve future picks and players.
Be sure to check out the chart above and play around with some potential trades for Kansas City. Let us know the haul that you end up with on Twitter and Facebook.
