The term “win win” is common in sports, but a true win win trade almost never happens. It also does not only happen in the NFL, but in all sports.
One trade however, made during the 2017 NFL Draft stoods above the rest as being a true win win trade and may even go down in NFL lore as the only true major example of a win win trade.
What trade am I referencing you may wonder?
The trade sent the 10th pick in the NFL Draft to the Chiefs for the 27th pick, 91st pick, and a 2018 first.
As most of us know the 10th pick in the 2017 NFL draft was quarterback Patrick Mahomes from Texas Tech.
Mahomes has smashed all kinds of passing records since he first began starting in 2018 and has already won a Super Bowl at the young age of 24. Many say Mahomes has the potential to be one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time and the Chiefs obviously made a great pick with Mahomes.
But if Mahomes is so great how would the Bills have won this trade?
I will admit that the Bills didn’t win the trade as much as the Chiefs did but at the time the Bills defense was one of the weaknesses of the team. At quarterback they had serviceable started Tyrod Taylor and later they almost seamlessly transitioned from Taylor to Josh Allen who has a lot of potential.
The real reason why the Bills won the trade is because of how they used the picks they received in return. With the 27th pick they drafted Tre’Davious White who is one of the two best cornerbacks in the league right now. With pick 91 they picked Siran Neal who has been underwhelming to this point. With the 2018 first however, they traded up from 22 to 16 and picked stud linebacker Tremaine Edmunds.
Edmunds had an amazing year in 2019 and soon if he keeps it up he has the potential to be the best linebacker in the NFL. White and Edmunds are two key pieces that make up one of the best defenses in the NFL. The Bills defense was amazing in 2019 and they’re so complete that they have the chance to go down as one of the best defenses in history as long as they don’t regress.
This trade may go down in history considering potentially one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time is involved and the Bills didn’t do too bad either grabbing two amazing defensive players who could spearhead their defense that may be very good for a long time.
This is the best example of a win win trade I can think of and this is what sports fans should look at as the model of a win win trade.
Can you think of a better ‘win-win’ trade?
Photo: David Eulitt/Getty Images
