Getty Several New York Jets defenders trying to prevent Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen from scoring a touchdown.
It is hard to pull off a trade in the NFL draft. As they say, it takes two to tango and both teams are trying to win the deal.
It is even harder to pull off a trade between divisional opponents but that is exactly what the New York Jets and the Buffalo Bills could attempt to do in late April.
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An Interesting Package to Consider
Larry Holder put together a fascinating article for The Athletic where he ran 20 first-round draft simulations from the Pro Football Network.
After running those simulations he revealed all of the interesting trends that he discovered including where the draft trade hot spots would be.
One of the scenarios that came up was a potential first-round trade between the Jets and the Bills:
- Buffalo receives: No. 10 overall (first-round)
- New York receives: No. 25 overall (first-round), No. 57 overall (second-round), No. 168 overall (fifth-round), and a 2023 second-rounder
According to the NFL draft value chart, the Jets would win the deal (1,300 points) by a solid margin over the Bills (1,492.6 points).
Gang Green has been very open to the idea of trading back in round one through multiple purposeful media leaks.
A Recent Example
I had an exclusive interview with former Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum on my YouTube channel (you can listen to the full thing here) and he explained how a draft-day trade comes together:
“It all depends, there isn’t a one size fits all approach. When we traded for Darrelle Revis we had an agreement the night before with the Carolina Panthers. They had a longtime general manager, Marty Hurney, who I had done a lot of deals with and thought the world of, and had a lot of trust with. We had reached an agreement in principle and we were able to say hey we want to go from No. 21 to No. 14 if one player was there. Here is what we would be comfortable with, we aren’t going to try to do it for less, and we don’t want you to ask for more at that moment. Other times it is spur of the moment, or unexpected opportunities, or you get a phone call that you just can’t say no to.”
As we explained at the top, it is hard to pull off a trade in general, let alone when you are featuring divisional opponents.
Both sides are trying to win the deal and the front offices of each squad know that if they blow it, they will never hear the end of it from their fanbases.
Let’s use a recent example to explain what we mean.
Leading up to the 2019 NFL draft the Jets held the No. 3 overall pick and they were open to taking calls. That’s when the phone started buzzing and the Bills called up to make a deal.
The two sides went back and forth on a potential package with Buffalo looking to trade up from the No. 9 overall pick to land Quinnen Williams who they coveted. However, if the Jets were going to drop that far back they needed an offer that tickled their fancy.
Ultimately Buffalo wasn’t willing to pay the price and stayed at their spot and settled for Ed Oliver out of Houston. The Jets ended up selecting Williams who has been a very solid player for them.
Adding Quinnen Williams and Jachai Polite in April’s draft, the Jets’ pass-rush landed a spot on @PFF‘s list of the most-improved pass-rushing defenses in 2019.
📽️: t.co/IYLK7DHBkD
Trades are fun, but you can’t simply trade for the sake of trading. You have to draw your line in the sand, something general manager Joe Douglas is well known for, and stick to your guns.
That mentality may make it nearly impossible for a deal like this to come together, but you can never say never.
Heck, the Jets and the New England Patriots have broken bread during the Douglas era with a trade. If they can strike a deal, why can’t the Bills jump into the mix?
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