Could you imagine if the Seattle Seahawks had the ability to trade their 2030 first-round pick in the 2027 offseason? If this proposal from the Cleveland Browns passes, perhaps that will be a reality very soon.
Ahead of the annual league meeting in Arizona next week, the NFL revealed only two teams submitted any rule change proposals. One of them was the Browns, who want the league to expand the window for trading future NFL Draft picks from three seasons to five seasons.
Reason: Provides Clubs with
greater roster-building flexibility by expanding the range of future draft assets available for trade
As always, any changes need to be approved by at least 24 of the 32 teams.
If approved, this would put the NFL a step closer to the NBA, which allows teams to trade first-rounders a whopping seven years out. Unlike the NBA, however, there’s no draft lottery in which there are pick protections just to make following asset dealing more complicated.
The Browns, of course, would be a fitting team to propose this rule given they were the ones who forked over three consecutive first-rounders to the Houston Texans for Deshaun Watson. Evidently the Los Angeles Rams president, Kevin Demoff, is in support of this idea.
Seahawks general manager John Schneider, however, seems to think differently. This is what he said on his weekly radio show on Seattle Sports.
“Five years out feels kind of like giveaways and then, you know, first round pick five years out, like wow,” Schneider said.
“If you’re at a club you know where maybe you had a like losing record or you’re concerned about job security or something, and you’re just giving away a first round pick four years out? I just think—I really like our system right now. I mean, I have a hard enough time when we when we’re negotiating like all these flips and I have to get off the phone and write it down on a pencil, act like I have to go to the bathroom, write it down, look at it, then call him back.
“It’ll be interesting to see with the presentation, but I’m just giving you my first blush.”
We’ll know sooner rather than later if the five-year window for draft pick trades comes to fruition. What I do know is that it would be a great boost to the mock draft business.
