NFL Trade BuilderHow it works
How the NFL Trade Builder calculates trade value
Every player and draft pick is priced in points on one scale — a player's overall rating times his position's trade value, adjusted for his contract, age and a star tax; a pick on the Fitzgerald-Spielberger chart — then checked against both clubs' live salary cap and the other club's team needs.
Every player and every draft pick on the board is priced in points on one scale, so the two sides of a deal compare directly. A player's points come from his overall rating and his position, adjusted for the contract he carries and his age; a pick's come from the trade-value chart. The live salary cap and dead money are computed off the real contracts by the same cap engine Manage The Cap runs, and decide whether either club can legally make the deal. The other club's team needs and depth chart change what your players are worth to them — which is why the fairness bar and their answer can disagree.
Paper value — overall × positional value
Paper value is what a player is worth on paper, before anyone's situation: his overall rating turned into a quality score, multiplied by how much his position commands on the trade market, multiplied by the points scale. No age, no contract, no club.
Paper Value = 8,400 × Quality(OVR)1.35 × Positional Value(OVR, position)
- Quality is the overall rating on a 0–1 curve: ((OVR − 58) ÷ (94 − 58))1.6. It is convex on purpose — a superstar costs a great deal more than a very good player, not a bit more. Below 58 overall a player is worth no draft capital at all; 94 and above is the top of the curve.
- Positional value is the premium a position commands, and it is a ramp rather than a flat number: a backup quarterback does not carry the quarterback premium. It climbs from a floor to the position's ceiling as the rating rises through the starter range.
- The scale is pinned to the Fitzgerald-Spielberger draft chart, where the #1 overall pick is worth 3,000 — that is what lets a player and a pick be compared at all. Non-quarterbacks are capped at 4,800 points, about three mid-round first-round picks; only quarterbacks break it, and on this board a quarterback's trade value is capped at 8,400 — the paper value of a 94 — once his contract, age and star tax are applied.
Positional value ceilings
QB 1.00EDGE 0.42OT 0.38WR 0.34DT 0.32CB 0.30RB 0.22S 0.20G 0.19C 0.17LB 0.17TE 0.15K 0.05P 0.03LS 0.02
Paper value by overall and position
| OVR | QB | EDGE | OT | WR | DT | CB | RB | S | G | C | LB | TE | K | P | LS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | 8,400 | 3,528 | 3,192 | 2,856 | 2,688 | 2,520 | 1,848 | 1,680 | 1,596 | 1,428 | 1,428 | 1,260 | 420 | 252 | 168 |
| 95 | 8,400 | 3,528 | 3,192 | 2,856 | 2,688 | 2,520 | 1,848 | 1,680 | 1,596 | 1,428 | 1,428 | 1,260 | 420 | 252 | 168 |
| 90 | 6,513 | 2,736 | 2,475 | 2,214 | 2,084 | 1,954 | 1,433 | 1,303 | 1,237 | 1,107 | 1,107 | 977 | 326 | 195 | 130 |
| 85 | 3,153 | 1,895 | 1,715 | 1,534 | 1,444 | 1,354 | 827 | 902 | 857 | 767 | 767 | 677 | 226 | 135 | 90 |
| 80 | 1,308 | 1,218 | 1,102 | 986 | 928 | 870 | 374 | 580 | 551 | 493 | 493 | 435 | 145 | 87 | 58 |
| 75 | 454 | 698 | 631 | 565 | 532 | 498 | 142 | 332 | 316 | 282 | 282 | 249 | 83 | 50 | 33 |
| 70 | 172 | 329 | 297 | 266 | 251 | 235 | 43 | 157 | 149 | 133 | 133 | 117 | 39 | 23 | 16 |
| 65 | 54 | 103 | 93 | 83 | 78 | 73 | 12 | 49 | 46 | 42 | 42 | 37 | 12 | 7 | 5 |
| 60 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | — | — |
Generated from the engine's own value curve, never typed in. Rows start at 60 because the quality floor is 58; 100 and 95 match because 94 is the top of the curve.
Then his situation: contract, age, the star tax
Trade Value = Paper Value × Contract Surplus × Age × Star Tax
- Contract surplus. You are trading the contract, not just the player. A rookie deal with two or more years left is ×1.35; cheap control (three-plus years at or under 70% of what he would ask on the open market) is ×1.15; an expiring deal is a rental at ×0.80; a cap hit 1.4× his ask or more is ×0.75 — except for a player rated 90 or better, whose contract this board never reads as a dump.
- Age. Every position has its own decline age — a running back's value falls from 26, a quarterback's from 34 — and the curve is steeper in trade than it is on the field, because a buyer pays for the years he will get. The market never fully forgets a star, so an ageing one keeps a floor.
- Star tax. At the very top the market pays more than the curve: a ramp that is 1.0 at 90 overall and reaches ×1.4 at 96 — two firsts plus change, which is what Mack, Ramsey and Parsons actually fetched.
Decline ages by position
RB 26WR 28TE 29G 29DT 29LB 29CB 29S 29C 30OT 30EDGE 30P 31QB 34K 34LS 34
Draft picks: the Fitzgerald-Spielberger trade chart
Picks price on the Fitzgerald-Spielberger chart — built from observed pick-for-pick trades, and the one input in the whole model nobody disputes. A 2027 pick is worth its exact slot in the draft order the mock draft simulator uses. A future pick has a round and no slot, so it takes the round's median value discounted 20% for every year out — 2028 is worth 80% of this draft, 2029 is 64%. Bundles are discounted too: three assets lose 14%, five lose 15% — a package of parts is worth less than one piece of the same total, which is why quantity never buys quality.
| Pick | Points |
|---|---|
| #1 | 3,000 |
| #10 | 1,833 |
| #32 | 1,244 |
| #64 | 892 |
| #100 | 666 |
| #150 | 461 |
| #200 | 315 |
| #256 | 190 |
The live salary cap and dead money
The dollars are not estimated. Every contract on the board is the real one, and the trade is priced by the same cap engine that runs Manage The Cap: the acquiring club assumes the remaining cash (base salary plus roster, workout and other bonuses), the sending club keeps the signing-bonus proration, which accelerates onto its books as dead money. The figures are this league year's: each club's real 2026 cap space, and — because a trade today is after June 1 — the sending club keeps this year's proration where it already sits while the rest lands as 2027 dead money. Both clubs are checked against that live cap space. A deal that leaves either side over the cap is not a trade — the board says who is over and by how much, and the front office will not answer it.
Team needs — what he is worth to them
Paper value is the same everywhere; a trade is not. The other club prices your players against its own depth chart and its live team needs: a man who would start for them is worth more than the same man buried behind two better players. The ladder is ×1.25 for an upgrade on their starter, ×1.00 for a starter, ×0.75 for the first man off the bench and ×0.50 buried. Needs move with the roster — a club that just lost both tackles wants one more than it did yesterday. That is why the fairness bar (context-free value) and the acceptance chance (their view) can disagree, and it is the feature.
Will they take it?
The partner's front office weighs what it receives against what it sends — on the Jimmy Johnson chart, which is what real front offices anchor to and which overvalues early picks against the Fitzgerald-Spielberger scale the board scores on. A front office wants to win a trade, so the acceptance curve is centred at 1.05: a dead-even package clears about 41%, paying 10% over clears about 59%, and anything under 0.75 of fair is refused outright. Ask Price asks them directly, either way round: what they want for their side, paid off yours, or what they would give for yours, paid off theirs — and fills the empty side with a package that clears both caps. A stated price, offer or counter is binding. Draft prospects on the board rank the way our big boards do.
Frequently asked questions
- How does the NFL Trade Builder calculate trade value?
- Every player and every draft pick is priced in points on one scale. A player's paper value is 8,400 × quality(overall)^1.35 × positional value, then multiplied by his contract surplus, an age factor and a star tax. A draft pick is priced on the Fitzgerald-Spielberger trade chart, where the #1 overall pick is worth 3,000 points and a future pick takes its round's median value discounted 20% a year.
- What is paper value?
- Paper value is what a player is worth on paper, before his contract, age or club: his overall rating on a 0–1 quality curve, multiplied by the premium his position commands on the trade market, multiplied by the points scale. Non-quarterbacks are capped at 4,800 points; quarterbacks break that ceiling, and on this board a quarterback's trade value is capped at 8,400 — a 94's paper value — once his contract, age and star tax are applied.
- Does the salary cap matter in the trade builder?
- Yes. Both clubs are checked against their real, current-year cap space using every contract's actual figures. The acquiring club takes on the remaining salary, the sending club keeps its signing-bonus proration as dead money, and a trade that leaves either club over the cap is refused with the amount they would be over.
- Why does the other team turn down a trade the fairness bar calls even?
- The fairness bar compares context-free value. The other club prices your players against its own depth chart and live team needs, and its front office wants to win a trade, so its acceptance curve is centred at 1.05 — a dead-even package clears about 41% of the time and paying 10% over clears about 59%. Anything under 0.75 of fair value is refused outright.
- What does Ask Price do?
- Ask Price works both ways. With players or picks on the right club's side, it asks that front office what it would take for them and fills the left side with a package that meets the price and clears both clubs' cap. With assets on the left side only, it asks what the right club would give for them and fills the right side off that club's own roster and picks. A stated price or offer is binding — Propose Trade seals it. When no even package exists, the closest one still goes on the board — the most the club can put together, or the one player it needs back — with the gap stated, so you can see what a high-value player is really worth.
- Are trades in the NFL Trade Builder saved or executed?
- No. An accepted deal is an answer, not a transaction: nothing is booked and no roster changes. To play a whole offseason with trades, tags, cuts, free agency and the draft against the real cap, run Manage The Cap, Fanspeak's NFL salary cap simulator.
- Where do the rosters, contracts and player ratings come from?
- The same live rosters, contracts, cap sheets and player overalls that Manage The Cap runs on, refreshed daily, and the same 2027 draft order the mock draft simulator uses — so a player is worth the same points here as he is inside the simulator.
Article updated 2026-09-14. Every figure above is regenerated from the trade engine on each build.