Browns Reportedly Propose NFL Rule Change to Expand Limit on Trading Draft Picks

The Cleveland Browns are hoping to expand the amount of years into the future teams can trade draft picks.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reported Thursday that, "Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the Browns have proposed an amendment to Article XVI, Section 16.6 of the NFL Constitution & Bylaws 'to allow draft selections to be traded up to five (5) seasons in the future.' The current limit (which isn't articulated in the Constitution & Bylaws) is three years."

Given some of the Browns' past trades, there is an argument to be made that they need to be protected from themselves. But NBA teams, for instance, can trade draft picks as far as seven years into the future (albeit with other restrictions in place preventing them from trading future first-round picks from consecutive drafts), making it a bit curious that the NFL rules are so restrictive.

Perhaps the NFL would consider similar restrictions if they expand the current rules. The Browns will need 24 votes to pass the potential measure.

The benefit of the current measure is that protects teams from nuking their future draft capital well into the future. Most contenders build their foundation through smart drafting and supplement that core via trades or free agency, so losing valuable picks years into the future could hamstring a team for the better part of a decade.

The downside to the current system is it limits the flexibility teams have when making offers and limits the potential return for teams when they make a franchise player—or a pick atop the draft—available in a trade.

Another benefit is that it would allow a team willing to make a huge trade the ability to spread out the negative impacts of losing that draft capital. For example, let's say a team is willing to trade a pair of first-round picks and a pair of second-round picks for Myles Garrett. In the current system, they are losing four very valuable picks in a three-year period and losing both a first- and second-round pick in one of those drafts.

To visualize that:

• 2026: Lost first-round pick
• 2027: Lost first- and second-round pick
• 2028: Lost second-round pick

But by spreading that over a five-year period instead, it would lessen the impact on a draft-by-draft basis:

• 2026: Lost first-round pick
• 2027: Lost second-round pick
• 2028: Lost no pick
• 2029: Lost first-round pick
• 2030: Lost second round pick

Given that certain drafts are stronger than others, it makes sense that teams might want to avoid losing multiple picks in a single year.

Now, another team would have to agree to receiving draft capital over such a spread-out period. But it's a bit like deferred money in baseball, where players take more overall money than they might have otherwise been offered, albeit in a spread-out manner. Some teams might feel they could receive more overall assets if they were willing to receive draft picks four or five years into the future.

Either way, it gives both sides of a trade more flexibility. It wouldn't be surprised if Cleveland's measure passes.