The Worst NFL Trade Of All Time

[TheTroll]

How about this one?

Chargers trading up for Ryan Leaf?

San Diego sent two first-round picks, a second-round pick and two players to the Cardinals to move from No. 3 to No. 2 in the first round. Leaf, the player San Diego selected, set the organization back years. Drafted after Peyton Manning went No. 1 overall to the Colts, Leaf is considered one of the biggest draft busts of all time.

[PPE82]

What did Washington pay to get RG3?

[TheTroll]

What did Washington pay to get RG3?

Targeting Heisman Trophy winner Griffin III, Washington sent three first-round selections and a second-rounder to the Rams, who were set at quarterback with former first-overall pick Sam Bradford. The blockbuster move was ill-fated for Washington — RG3 hurt his knee at the end of his rookie season, leading to a downward spiral for his career.

[Bronco Billy]

Kind of fun to read some of these trades and then think about how some howled at the incredible stupidity of the Packers for burning a 1st round pick for Rodgers when Favre was QB and then years later drafting Love in the 1st when Rodgers was there.

[Pac_Eddy]

Kind of fun to read some of these trades and then think about how some howled at the incredible stupidity of the Packers for burning a 1st round pick for Rodgers when Favre was QB and then years later drafting Love in the 1st when Rodgers was there.

I'd say drafting Jordan Love was still a mistake. They should've kept adding weapons for Rodgers. Not as bad as the other trades in this thread, but that pick plus the firsts since then made for a toxic Rodgers.

[Bronco Billy]

Kind of fun to read some of these trades and then think about how some howled at the incredible stupidity of the Packers for burning a 1st round pick for Rodgers when Favre was QB and then years later drafting Love in the 1st when Rodgers was there.

I'd say drafting Jordan Love was still a mistake. They should've kept adding weapons for Rodgers. Not as bad as the other trades in this thread, but that pick plus the firsts since then made for a toxic Rodgers.

We’ll have to agree to disagree.

[qazxswedcvfrtgbnhyuj]

What did Washington pay to get RG3?

Targeting Heisman Trophy winner Griffin III, Washington sent three first-round selections and a second-rounder to the Rams, who were set at quarterback with former first-overall pick Sam Bradford. The blockbuster move was ill-fated for Washington — RG3 hurt his knee at the end of his rookie season, leading to a downward spiral for his career.

Can't really blame them for that one imo. What they got in RG3 until the injury was exactly what they hoped for - a fantastic young franchise qb. Now, how they handled said injury is a different story. But still, that one at least didn't look like obvious idiocy like some of the others in this thread, just bad luck.

[Cameron Giles]

What did Washington pay to get RG3?

Targeting Heisman Trophy winner Griffin III, Washington sent three first-round selections and a second-rounder to the Rams, who were set at quarterback with former first-overall pick Sam Bradford. The blockbuster move was ill-fated for Washington — RG3 hurt his knee at the end of his rookie season, leading to a downward spiral for his career.

Can't really blame them for that one imo. What they got in RG3 until the injury was exactly what they hoped for - a fantastic young franchise qb. Now, how they handled said injury is a different story. But still, that one at least didn't look like obvious idiocy like some of the others in this thread, just bad luck.

Agreed. These deals where you can at least understand why it happened and the upside there, but it just didn't work out are not in the same realm as the ones that were horrendous as soon as it was announced.

[Forza_Azzurri]

As a Cowboys fan, the Walker trade was the best trade of all time.

[murphysxm]

As a Cowboys fan, the Walker trade was the best trade of all time.

Fixed this:

"Because of the Walker trade, I became a Cowboys fan"

[abloom]

I'd put the wes welker or randy moss trade as two of the worst moves in terms of player production vs payment. Walker trade also and the Ricky Williams trade.

The Wilson and Watson trades weren't really that bad, what was bad was the accompanied new deals that were done. In this day and age you need to pay for QBs in free agency, trading, or hit in the draft.


Edit: nevermind, worst trade clearly was nuk to Arizona

[FantasyFreak]

What did Washington pay to get RG3?

Targeting Heisman Trophy winner Griffin III, Washington sent three first-round selections and a second-rounder to the Rams, who were set at quarterback with former first-overall pick Sam Bradford. The blockbuster move was ill-fated for Washington — RG3 hurt his knee at the end of his rookie season, leading to a downward spiral for his career.

Can't really blame them for that one imo. What they got in RG3 until the injury was exactly what they hoped for - a fantastic young franchise qb. Now, how they handled said injury is a different story. But still, that one at least didn't look like obvious idiocy like some of the others in this thread, just bad luck.

RG3 was on a rookie deal. It's the picks, AND the contract combined that makes this Browns trade such a debacle.

[Sriracha]

Once you factor in the fully guaranteed contract that the Browns literally can not move off of it's the Watson trade.

[mild]

I'll attack this one another way, as I think all the usual hits have already been taken.

Green Bay only getting a 2 place move up in the 1st (15th to 13th), a 2023 2nd, and another conditional 2nd for Aaron Rodgers.

Given that they already had the succession plan in place, and that a QB's most valuable years for team building are their rookie seasons - the fact that they didn't trust themselves to pull the trigger on that trade one year earlier is kind of galling.

The fact remains: we KNOW that Denver wanted Rodgers over Russ as their 1a to his 1b. That Russ trade package was on the table - reminder:

Drew Lock, Noah Fant, Shelby Harris, 2 1sts, 2 2nds, and a 5th.

Amazing to think what could have been if the Packers had simply trusted their own process and gone through with the courage of their own conviction when they originally selected Love in favour of building around Rodgers.

They would be much further down the road on the Love era right now, and would have had a far more stacked team to boot. (And I've liked their moves! Imagine if they'd had even more draft capital...)

Pretty bad fumbling of the bag on the Rodgers dismount, imo.

[MacDaddy123]

One could make an argument for the Panthers trade up for Young last year.
I mean Bryce Young for 2023 pick 1.09, 2023 pick 2.30, 2024 pick 1.01, 2025 2nd round pick, and DJ Moore.
Young will never be able to live up to that value.

Panthers acted like there was a generational QB prospect in the 2023 QB class, and there was not.
HUGE overpay for the 2023 1.01, and almost everyone knew it long before draft day.

Another honorable mention might be the Titans trading AJ Brown to the Eagles essentially for Treylon Burks.

The B.Young one looks super bad in hindsight because of the 1.01 this season (although I guess that's not technically locked in yet). I'm still hopeful that Young can turn it around. A lot of QBs have had tough seasons especially when drafted near the top of the first round.

I actually thought the trade looked really bad at the time of the trade.
I felt the Panthers paid up as if there was a generational QB prospect in the 2023 draft class, a Burrow or TLaw, and there wasn't.

Even before the 2023 NFL Draft, most people felt that 2024 would be a much better QB class.

I mean just spending a lot of draft capital on a player, does not make that player any better.
You can't make a player better just by spending more on them.