The highest choose within the NFL draft has been traded 13 occasions for the reason that league’s merger greater than 5 many years in the past.
The New England Patriots may quickly symbolize No. 14.
New England finds itself in an advantageous place coming into its season finale towards the Buffalo Payments. The Patriots presently maintain the No. 1 choose within the 2025 NFL Draft, and a loss at Gillette Stadium on Sunday would imply the group earns the highest choice.
Because the Patriots have franchise quarterback Drake Maye, there’s motive to imagine New England will commerce No. 1 to a quarterback-needy crew. New England would purchase extra draft capital in that situation.
However what would possibly a commerce appear to be? Whereas no two trades are the identical — particularly since some draft evaluators don’t view the 2025 quarterback class as extremely as these up to now — we do have previous trades to look again on.
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Listed below are the 3 times it’s occurred this century:
2023: Chicago Bears commerce No. 1 to Carolina Panthers
That is the newest instance, and subsequently will probably be included in quite a few comparisons as we inch nearer to April’s draft.
Carolina acquired the No. 1 choose from Chicago and drafted quarterback Bryce Younger. On the time, Chicago didn’t really feel it wanted a quarterback and opted to stay with Justin Fields. The Bears landed a one-player, four-pick haul from the Panthers, who held the No. 9 choose. It included vast receiver DJ Moore, Carolina’s 2023 first-round choose (OT Darnell Wright), Carolina’s 2023 second-round choose (CB Tyrique Stevenson) and Carolina’s 2024 first-round choose (QB Caleb Williams). Chicago owns Carolina’s second-round choose in 2025, too.
The Bears did another maneuvering following their commerce with the Panthers, buying and selling again from No. 9 to No. 10. They chose Wright at No. 10 and added Philadelphia’s 2024 fourth-rounder (P Tory Taylor). All in all, the No. 1 spot sprouted into one participant and 5 picks.
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2016: Tennessee Titans commerce No. 1 to Los Angeles Rams
Just like the earlier instance, and the state of affairs the Patriots are in, the Titans landed the highest choose one yr after they drafted quarterback Marcus Mariota second total. They didn’t want to deal with the QB place.
The Rams acquired No. 1 from the Titans and drafted quarterback Jared Goff. LA additionally acquired a 2016 fourth-rounder and sixth-rounder within the deal. In the meantime, Tennessee obtained LA’s 2016 first-round choose (WR Corey Coleman), two second-round picks in 2016 (DT Austin Johnson, RB Derrick Henry), a 2016 third-rounder (OT Shon Coleman) in addition to a 2017 first-round choose (No. 5, WR Corey Davis) and 2017 third-round choose (TE Jonnu Smith).
All in all, the Titans obtained six Day 1 and Day 2 picks for No. 1 and two Day 3 alternatives.
2001: San Diego Chargers commerce No. 1 to Atlanta Falcons
The Chargers landed the No. 1 choose just a few years after they chose quarterback Ryan Leaf second total within the 1998 NFL Draft.
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The Falcons acquired the highest choice and drafted quarterback Michael Vick. In doing so, San Diego acquired one participant and three picks, which included vast receiver Tim Dwight, 2001 first-round choose (No. 5, RB LaDainian Tomlinson), a 2001 third-round choose and a 2002 second-round choose.
You may try all 13 trades involving the No. 1 choose right here.
We’ll see if the Patriots are in a position to land the highest choose Sunday, however any commerce for No. 1 possible gained’t come till the spring.
