Reading through most Buffalo Bills fans’ comments on social media, it looks like most people would prefer to trade down in the draft.
What trading down means the Bills would take their ninth pick in the draft and trade it to a team that picks behind them, bringing additional picks later in the draft.
For example, last year, the Baltimore Ravens traded their 16th and 154th pick to Buffalo for their 22nd and 65th picks.
In the early 1990s, the Dallas Cowboys and their new head coach Jimmy Johnson created the “Draft Value Chart,” assigning each pick in the draft with a number value to determine how valuable each pick was.
The reason? If they traded picks, they knew they were getting a fair price. The draft value chart is still in use and every team has their own version, depending on their value and how they view draft picks.
Let’s go back to the example. Using the draft value chart from Draftek.com, Baltimore’s picks that they traded were worth a value of 1,029.4 (1,000 plus 29.4) and the Bills’ picks were worth 1,140 (780 plus 360).
In this trade, Baltimore made out better. But normally, the team trying to trade up normally does give up a little more; also, it is unclear if another team was also in talks with Baltimore to trade up. This would have caused Buffalo to give up a little more so they could get Baltimore’s pick.
Most trade-ups in the draft involve a team looking to find their next quarterback. Rumored teams looking to trade up that are looking for a quarterback are the Denver Broncos, Cincinnati Bengals, and Washington Redskins.
Their next move would involve a team with a player there are trying to get and know he won’t make it to their pick, the example between Baltimore and Buffalo (who took Tremaine Edmunds). These teams are harder to pinpoint because we don’t know what their draft boards would look like.
Right now, the Bills’ draft picks and their values are 9 (1,350), 40 (500), 74 (220), 112 (70), 128 (41), 147 (32.2), 158 (27.8), 181 (18.6), 225 (1.4), and 228 (1).
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