In Year 1 after the Khalil Mack trade, it looked like a big win for the Bears. Year 2 may look different.
The Bears made the playoffs with Mack leading their defense, while the Raiders were one of the worst teams in the NFL last season. But so far, the Raiders haven’t actually acquired anything through the Mack trade, and the Bears haven’t lost anything. And that changes starting with this year’s NFL draft, when the Raiders have the Bears’ first-round pick and sixth-round pick.
In fact, the Raiders have the most draft capital in the NFL this year, and the Bears have the least: René Bugner calculated the total value of all draft picks for all 32 teams, using both the point value on Jimmy Johnson’s famous draft chart, and on the updated chart that Chase Stuart developed in 2012. Both charts show the Raiders as the team with the most draft value, and the Bears with the least.
That’s in large part because of the Mack trade, but there’s more to it than that: The Raiders also acquired the Cowboys’ first-round pick with the Amari Cooper trade, plus the Seahawks’ seventh-round pick for trading safety Shalom Luani. The Bears also traded away their second-round pick to move up in last year’s draft and select wide receiver Anthony Miller.
The Cardinals, owners of the first overall pick, have the second-most draft capital, and the Packers (who own the Saints’ first-round pick) are in good draft shape as well. Unsurprisingly, after the Bears, the two teams in the worst position in the draft are the two other teams that have traded away their first-round picks, the Saints and Cowboys.