Kansas City Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach commented this week that there will “probably be a lot of trades” in the first round of this year’s draft.
There have already been six first-round draft picks moved this year, with most of them traded as part of compensation packages for players.
Remember trades like Sauce Gardner going to the Indianapolis Colts, or Micah Parsons going to the Green Bay Packers – these swaps involved 2026 first-round picks that have already changed hands.
If Veach is correct, there will be more to come. But for the 2026 draft to get into the record books for trade mania, it’s got a long way to go.
Record for Most Trades In the First Round of the NFL Draft
In 2022, a staggering 18 first-round picks were moved before or during that year’s draft.
Nine teams ended up with multiple selections; 10 teams didn’t make a first-round pick at all.
All three of those data points are NFL records.
Average Number of First-Round Trades In the NFL Draft
On average, there are about 11 first-round picks traded each year in the NFL Draft.
There is wide year-to-year variance on first-round pick trades, though, so this stat may not be too helpful. In 2025, there were six picks traded, while there were the aforementioned 18 trades just three years earlier. Every year can be very different.
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