NFL draft trade value chart: What are picks worth?

Nov 6, 2021; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Bryce Young (9) reacts after a touchdown against the LSU Tigers during the first half at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Butch Dill-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 6, 2021; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Bryce Young (9) reacts after a touchdown against the LSU Tigers during the first half at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Butch Dill-USA TODAY Sports /
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Front offices across the league likely use trade value charts to see how much their draft picks are worth and how they could move up and down the board.  A really good resource for the NFL draft is the trade value chart, which assigns values to each draft pick.

The point of the chart is to show those around the NFL how much each draft pick is worth and what kind of package a team could put together to move up or down draft boards.  The chart itself is available on many websites.

The values range from 3,000 for the first overall pick all the way down to 1 for some of the final picks in the seventh round.  This chart is likely used across the NFL inside front offices as they navigate their way up and down the NFL draft.

Let’s take a deeper look into the chart and give an example of how it could work.

NFL Draft value chart

The first overall pick is assigned a 3,000 point value.  We’ll call them points.  Currently, the Houston Texans hold the first overall pick of the 2023 NFL draft.  If we continue down the chart, we’ll see that the 7th overall pick is worth 1,500 points.

Simple math tells us that two seventh overall selections would equate to one first overall pick.  The idea here is if a team wanted to trade up to a certain pick for example, they’d likely assemble a package that has the same or similar point value to the pick they are trying to acquire.

The Arizona Cardinals hold the seventh overall pick in the upcoming draft right now.  If they wanted to acquire the first overall pick, they could trade their seventh overall selection along with a few other picks to get to the number one overall pick.

Let’s do the math for this example.

  • Seventh overall pick = 1,500
  • Thirty-seventh overall pick = 530
  • Seventy-third overall pick = 225
  • Ninety-sixth overall pick = 133

If the Cardinals wanted to trade their first four picks in the 2023 NFL Draft, it would carry a value of 2,388.  This would not be close to enough value to acquire the top selection based on the chart.  That does have about the same value as the third overall pick, though, which carries a 2,200 point value.

This is a useful chart that allows teams and even fans to see how much worth their teams’ draft picks have.