Why are player-for-player trades uncommon in the NFL?

teams having to absorb the players guaranteed monies i believe... not positive though.

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It seems NFL GM's rarely trade player for player to fit needs, much more relying on draft picks to finalize deals.

MLB and NBA do way more PFP trading...***I'd actually like to see a stat showing how much more if anyone has insight on the subject***


*** Yes, I know I could take the question to google.***

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Trading one player is tough because of the cap hit involved relative to the guaranteed money. It follows that two players would be even tougher to trade.

MLB doesn't have a salary cap, and the NBA has no cap penalty for the trade.

When was the last big time pfp trade in the NFL? Off the top of my head, I know Clinton Portis for Champ Bailey was a big one several years back. Any recent ones I'm missing?

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It seems NFL GM's rarely trade player for player to fit needs, much more relying on draft picks to finalize deals.

MLB and NBA do way more PFP trading...

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Well it also involves the newly acquired player learning a system. In baseball, you know if the player can hit or field. In basketball, you have a good idea if they can play defense or make shots.

In football, you have to know if they can quickly learn dozens of plays with potentially more than one responsibility in each of those plays or the coverage calls quickly enough to contribute.

It usually takes time to get a certain system down (even between similar defenses or offenses due to mere terminology differences). That's why you typically see small player=player trades during training camp/right before the season. It allows more time to acclimate to the offensive or defensive system in a season that only consists of 16 regular season games.

The salary cap merely adds on another layer of complexity. Not just in fitting a player's contract into your existing cap structure but in that teams typically don't want to give up talented cheap players without a premium on the return.