Schefter Reveals NFL Team Will 'Push' to Change Rules on Trading Future Draft Picks

At least one NFL team would like to see the league expand the rule on how many years into the future you can trade draft picks.

Appearing on Monday's episode of The Pat McAfee Show, ESPN's Adam Schefter explained that one club plans to "push" a rule change that would allow teams to include draft picks five years into the future, as opposed to the current rule of three years, in potential trades.

It's incredibly rare to find a trade with picks that go out three years into the future. The general compensation for an elite-level player being traded is two first-round draft picks.

For example, the Green Bay Packers' acquisition of Micah Parsons involved them sending first-round selections in 2026 and 2027 back to the Dallas Cowboys.

That deal does kind of meet the three-year pick criteria because the Cowboys included a "poison pill" clause as part of their agreement with the Packers that would require them to receive an additional first-round selection in 2028 if Green Bay were to subsequently trade Parsons to a team in the NFC East.

The clause applied to the 2025 season and 2026 season, so it's theoretically possible that it could convey. It's seems highly unlikely the Packers will trade Parsons at any point his offseason or before the trade deadline next season, but strange things happen all the time in sports.

Deshaun Watson is the most recent player who was traded for three future first-round draft picks when he was acquired by the Cleveland Browns in March 2022. The Browns sent their first-rounders in 2022, 2023 and 2024 to the Houston Texans.

One thing that is interesting to think about is how the ability to trade picks further into the future could change trade negotiations. A first-round pick will always have more value than a second-rounder, but if a club wants to be aggressive without mortgaging their entire cache of first-round picks for three years, would they try to offer, say, a package with one first-rounder and five second-round choices?

Schefter didn't specify how much enthusiasm there might be around the league for such a rule change. Given how infrequently those types of trades happen, it wouldn't seem like something that is a high priority for teams.

Any potential rule changes require 75 percent approval from the league's 32 team owners. Rule changes are typically proposed by the NFL selection committee at the league meetings in March.