Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- The Las Vegas Raiders are reportedly open to moving on from a star defensive player amid significant roster changes and financial adjustments.
- One team is considering trading a high-potential quarterback despite recent investments, aiming to acquire more valuable draft assets.
- A disgruntled star pass-rusher has publicly requested a trade, creating tension as his current team navigates cap space and future plans.
Player trades during the NFL Draft are a lot of fun, but they’re kind of rare. The 2022 draft was great because we saw the Eagles trade for A.J. Brown and the Cardinals trade for Hollywood Brown, both during the first round. There’s been kind of a lull since then. In 2023, the Eagles traded for D’Andre Swift, and in 2025, the Vikings traded for Sam Howell. Neither of those had the same juice, but a trade is a trade.
Let’s chase the dragon. Let’s look for some players who could be traded during the draft. When we’re looking at teams with players they could trade, we’re looking at teams without first-round picks, teams that don’t have a lot of draft picks, teams that might not like their draft position, and teams with players who we all kind of think are going to be traded.
EDGE Maxx Crosby, Las Vegas Raiders
Potential landing spots: Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys, Buffalo Bills
When the Ravens backed out of the Maxx Crosby trade at the beginning of March, his value bottomed out. That means that since then, his value has only gone up (because that’s the only way it can go).
If/when they do trade him, it’s never going to be for two first-round picks like the Ravens were offering, but it would be for a first-round pick and maybe a round two or three pick.
You have to imagine that they still want to offload him. They signed a whole bunch of players and spent a whole bunch of money on defense, and then they found out that they were still going to be stuck with Crosby’s contract.
They have 10 picks in the 2026 draft, including the first overall pick and three fourth-round picks. If they want to trade back into the first round of the draft and get Fernando Mendoza a receiver (which they desperately need), they can do that.
The Bears, the Cowboys (20th pick), and the Bills are all teams in the back half of the draft order, and they could use a player like Crosby.
QB Anthony Richardson, Indianapolis Colts
Potential Landing Spots: Detroit Lions, Cleveland Browns, New York Jets, Pittsburgh Steelers
This is probably the least sexy trade that could happen during the draft, but it really needs to happen. Not just because Anthony Richardson is a freak of nature athlete with incredibly high potential that he’ll never reach, and he’s in the last year of his rookie contract… but also because the Colts need more and better draft picks.
At the 2025 trade deadline, they traded their 2026 and 2027 first-round draft picks to the Jets for cornerback Sauce Gardner. It was just about as win-now of a trade as you’ll ever see… and at the time, it was a pretty solid strategy.
The Colts had an 8-4 record and were on a two-game skid coming out of their bye week. A lockdown corner was something they desperately needed, and with Daniel Jones playing the way he was playing, it seemed like there was a real chance that he could be the quarterback of the future.
Then everything went to hell. Gardner got hurt almost immediately, the defense lost DeForest Buckner, Daniel Jones broke his leg, and then tore his Achilles. Bada bing, bada boom: the Colts ended their season with an 8-9 record and ended up giving the Jets the 16th overall draft pick.
Now the Colts have seven draft picks: a second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and two seventh-rounders. That’s a perfectly okay number, but the value on those picks just isn’t there. If they could package Richardson and a later-round pick or two, and trade those to a team that could use backup quarterback depth for a third or fourth round pick, they’d be (relatively) back in business.
The Lions have a pair of fourth-round picks and two quarterbacks (Goff and Bridgewater) who aren’t getting any older. The Browns and the Jets are always ripe to do something stupid with their quarterback room. The Steelers are sitting on three third-round picks and two fourth-round picks, and their quarterback room is a mess right now.
My point is that there are options for the Colts to move on from Richardson and get better in the process.
RB Breece Hall, New York Jets
Potential Landing Spots: Jacksonville Jaguars, Baltimore Ravens, Pittsburgh Steelers
We haven’t had a good “Tag and Trade” in a minute. Breece Hall wanted to be traded at the deadline last season, but the Jets wanted a third-round pick, and the Chiefs were only offering a fourth-rounder. Then this offseason, the Jets were very mean when they slapped a franchise tag on him.
They don’t need a running back like Breece Hall, but there are plenty of other teams who do. Luckily for the Jets, there aren’t really good running backs available on the free agent market, and this draft class really only has two good running backs (Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price). That means that after those two guys get picked, the price for tradable running backs is going to go up (it’s a supply and demand thing).
The Jaguars have a couple of third, fifth, and seventh-round picks they could move on from. The Ravens have four fifth-round picks, and Derrick Henry’s not getting any younger. The Steelers have those three thirds and two fourths they could move.
There are going to be opportunities for the Jets to make a billion draft picks this year, and they should because that team needs to get younger and cheaper.
QB Tanner McKee, Philadelphia Eagles
Potential Landing Spots: New York Jets, Arizona Cardinals, Cleveland Browns
There isn’t a franchise in the NFL that understands the value of the backup quarterback more than the Eagles. They won their first Super Bowl in 2017 with Nick Foles after Carson Wentz blew his ACL in Week 14 of the 2017 season.
Tanner McKee is a phenomenal backup quarterback who should be a starter in the league. That’s to say, it’s not going to be easy for the Eagles to let him go.
However, they did just trade a seventh-round pick to the Panthers for Andy Dalton. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the Eagles are definitely trading McKee, but it does mean that if they do, they’ll have a capable backup.
There are four realistic teams that the Eagles could trade with: the Jets, the Steelers, the Cardinals, and the Browns.
With the Jets, they would be getting a starting-caliber quarterback, and they wouldn’t have to rely on Geno Smith. They have plenty of second and fourth-round draft picks that the Eagles would be delighted to get off their hands. The obvious problem here is that McKee would make that team better this year, and they’re clearly not trying to be better this year. They’re playing for the 2027 first-overall pick, so that they can draft their quarterback of the future…. But it is the Jets, so they’ll probably end up messing that up somewhere down the road.
The Cardinals are pretty much in the same boat as the Jets, except they have fewer draft picks this year. Right now, their quarterback room is Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew. That’s a bad room for winning football games, but good for the tank job they’re trying to pull off. McKee makes it better, but that’s not what they want. The hiccup here is that Monti Ossenfort, their general manager, needs a not-terrible season to save his job. That means his goals and the franchise's goals are completely different (which is also why you should always fire your GM if he’s remotely close to the hot seat).
Could he make a move to get a better player at the most important position? I could see it. And now that he fired Jonathan Gannon, you have to think that Ossenfort is back in Howie Roseman’s good graces.
With the Steelers, it’s easy: Aaron Rodgers hasn’t re-signed with them, and now they’re talking about how excited they are for Will Howard. Do you believe that? No, because you’re not dumb. Saying that you’re excited for Will Howard is the same thing as saying that you’re excited to go to the dentist: you know that it’s going to be a terrible time, but maybe you can trick your brain into thinking literally anything else about it.
Until the “Aaron Rodgers has re-signed with the Steelers” notification pops up on your phone, that quarterback position is up in the air. If Pittsburgh isn’t able to get Ty Simpson or Garrett Nussmeier in the second round (maybe third round) of the draft, I would imagine that we’ll start seeing rumors about possible trades they could make to get McKee from the Eagles. I hope the running rate would be for one of those third-round picks, but in reality, it’d be a disappointing fourth.
Also, Pittsburgh’s on the other side of the state, and McKee would probably be able to knock that move out in a weekend or two. It’s easy for everyone.
The Browns are a whole different beast, and if the Eagles traded McKee to them, I think it would be an astronomically huge trade. Sure, the Browns would get McKee… but they’d also get some very high draft picks, because they would have to send away…
EDGE Myles Garrett, Cleveland Browns
Potential Landing Spot: Philadelphia Eagles
Let’s set the table about where Myles Garrett and the Browns are:
On Feb. 3, 2025, he requested a trade from the Browns and said, “My desire to win and compete on the biggest stages won't allow me to be complacent.” He then signed a four-year extension for $160 million with the Browns, broke the all-time sack record, ended the season with a 5-12 record, and missed the playoffs for the seventh time in his nine-year career.
His career is being wasted, and he deserves some of the blame for that. A contract that gives you $40 million per year is obviously a lot, but if he did get traded, another team probably would’ve given him $35 to $38 million. Whatever, that’s the past.
This offseason, he restructured his deal in a way that helps the team get more cap space; in other words, a way that makes moving Garrett a little easier.
During the owners meetings at the end of March, the Browns were asked about that, and they said that they weren’t going to trade Garrett… but you never go out and say that you’re going to trade someone because that automatically decreases the amount of leverage you have in the negotiations.
For the sake of football, we should all be rooting for Garrett to get traded. If the Browns are looking for a quarterback (which is something they’ve been doing for the last 20 years), they can trade Garrett to the Eagles. In return, they’d get McKee, the Eagles' 2026 first-round pick, and maybe a 2027 conditional second-round pick that could turn into a first-round pick.
Kyle Pitts, Atlanta Falcons
Potential Landing Spots: Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, New England Patriots
Kyle Pitts is another “Tag and Trade” guy. The Falcons were ding-dongs during the 2025 draft and traded their 2026 first-round pick to the Rams, and now they only have five picks this year.
A Pitts trade would be a lot of fun because he could easily be worth a first-round pick, or he could be worth four or five other picks.
If Ian Cunningham (their new GM) catches wind of a team trying to trade up to get Kenyon Sadiq (the only tight end with a first-round grade), and that team can’t get a deal done, he should give them a call and offer Pitts.
The Eagles could be one of those teams. The Cowboys have a lot of draft picks. If the Packers aren’t feeling great about Tucker Kraft’s recovery, they have a lot of late-round picks to move. The Patriots have a billion draft picks that they could package together… There are a lot of teams that could use a guy like Kyle Pitts, and they’d almost definitely use him better than the Falcons.
A.J. Brown, Philadelphia Eagles
Potential Landing Spots: New England Patriots, Mystery Team
I’d rather not bring this up, but due diligence or whatever. The Eagles are probably going to trade A.J. Brown. If they do, they’re financially incentivized to do that after June 1st. Right now, it really looks like the Patriots are the only team that is a trade candidate, and if they’re the only team, then there is no rush to get this trade done for either side.
But if there’s another interested team that’s been going un/under-reported, that could put a sense of urgency on everyone, and that could mean we see a trade happen during the draft.
That’s kind of where the hitch comes in: for the Eagles to forgo the financial incentive and trade Brown before June, they’re going to have to get a massive trade package in return. We’re talking about this year’s first-round pick, a second-round pick next year, and maybe a couple of day-three picks (or something like that).
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