NFL Trades

Growing up there were two monster historic NFL trades against which all others were judged; the 1990 trade of Hershel Walker from Dallas to Minnesota and the 1999 trade that allowed New Orleans to draft Ricky Williams. The number of draft picks in both trades seemed crazy at the time but now it seems NFL trades often include similar numbers of draft picks but aren't considered as historic at all.

Hershel Walker was traded to Minnesota for three 1st round picks, three 2nd round picks, plus a 3rd round pick and a 6th rounder. They gave up Herschel, two 3rd rounders and a 5th and a 10th. Dallas used that 1990 1st rounder to draft Emmitt Smith and to lay the groundwork for their championships of the 1990's (they already had Troy Aikman). New Orleans traded their entire draft from 1999 plus 2000 1st and 3rd rounders to Washington - all for the rights to draft Ricky Williams. In both cases the teams getting the draft picks were judged over time to have gotten the better ends of the deals.

Consider that in just 2021 Detroit traded Matthew Stafford to the Rams for Jared Goff  and two 1st round picks and a 3rd rounder. And San Fran traded three 1st rounders and a 3rd rounder for just the rights to draft QB Trey Lance.. In 2022 we've seen Russel Wilson (and a 4th rounder) traded from Seattle to Denver for three decent players plus two 1st rounders, two 2nd rounders, and a 5th. Then you had the Deshaun Watson trade from Houston to Cleveland for three 1st round picks, a 3rd and a 5th all for a player facing 22 sexual misconduct civil suits. Crazy.

For people brought up on the Hershel Walker and Ricky Williams trades (and the aftermaths of those trade) the recent complete disregard of 1st round picks seems crazy!

As an aside - Emmitt Smith ended up having more 1,000+ yard seasons (11) than Ricky Williams (5) and Hershel Walker (2) combined! Really surprised that Hershel only had 2 1,000-yards seasons in his NFL career.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd share.

Very good political ad. There will be lots of ads like this using Obama's own words against him. 

Heh heh - funniest dog picture ever 

This is spectacular photo and a spectacular use of light

Have you seen this Ricky Williams interview with Dan LeBatard? What did you think? 

NFL Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous NFL thoughts and observations.

How important is rushing to a team's success? The conventional wisdom is that a successful team needs a good running game to set up the passing game. The Colts put this theory on it's head. Indianapolis is tied for last in rushing in the entire NFL with just 86.1 yards per game. Yet they are the only team in the NFL with a perfect record... Nugget from ESPN's Adam Schefter: "Ricky Williams reached the 1,000-yard mark for the first time since 2003, the longest gap between 1,000-yard seasons in NFL history"... Not beating yourself - another reason the Colts are undefeated is the fact they don't beat themselves with penalties. Indianapolis has the second fewest penalties in the NFL (68 - two behind Jacksonville's 66) for the second fewest penalty yards (516 - just 8 more than the Chargers)... Against possibly the best defense in the NFL (Green Bay) - Ben Roethlisberger passes for 503 yards. A week earlier against possibly the worst defense in the NFL (the Browns) - Roethlisberger passed for 302 fewer yards. You figure it out... Another nugget from Adam Schefter: "By losing to Tampa Bay, Seattle helped St. Louis get the No. 1 overall pick - and now the Seahawks might have to face Suh in NFC West"... In week 1 of the NFL season - Tom Brady led the league in passing yards. He hasn't led the league any week since. Doesn't really mean anything - just thought I'd mention it...