Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Player for player trades are rare in the NFL. So, when we get one that is weird, then the whole thing is really weird.

Let's start with one involving players who never really played. On April 23, 2002, the Jets traded punter David Leaverton to the Buccaneers for wide receiver Jonathan Pittman. Neither guy ever appeared in an NFL game that counted.

March 7, 2005 saw former teammates traded for one another. The Redskins traded Laveranues Coles to the Jets for Santana Moss.

On March 4, 2002 a quarterback was traded for a defensive tackle when the Texans sent Danny Wuerffel to the Redskins for Jerry DeLoatch.

I know it was not a strict player-for-player scenario but the entire "Vikings trade away Tarkenton/Vikings trade to get Tarkenton back" episode(s) were rather unusual.

JuggernautJ wrote:I know it was not a strict player-for-player scenario but the entire "Vikings trade away Tarkenton/Vikings trade to get Tarkenton back" episode(s) were rather unusual.

And Bob Grim was involved in the other end of both trades.

Jurgensen (& Carr) for Snead (& Crabb). Weird enough that it was a QB-for-QB swap...even weirder that one of the QBs clearly much better than the other QB.

The Ollie Matson trade in 1959 has to be considered one of the more unusual trades
(nine for one) although it wasn't strictly a player-for-player trade since the nine
included two future draft choices.

In 2006 Javon Walker was traded during the draft to the Broncos for their 2nd round pick. I can't think of any other mid-draft "a pick for a player" trades. There probably have been others but not as notable... or I'm just not thinking of them.

QB Milt Plum from the Browns to Lions for QB Jim Ninowski in 1962.

John Grasso wrote:The Ollie Matson trade in 1959 has to be considered one of the more unusual trades
(nine for one) although it wasn't strictly a player-for-player trade since the nine
included two future draft choices.

There was also the trade of Les Richter for 11 players in 1952. And it was all players apparently, no draft picks.

In 1960 the Washington Redskins traded Bill Herron to the CFL British Columbia Lions for Ed Vereb. In the same year, the Browns traded Bob Ptacek to Saskatchewan for Jim Marshall. Yes, that Jim Marshall.

In 1962, the Bears traded Pete Manning to Calgary for Ed O'Bradovich. In 1965, the Cowboys traded Amos Bullocks to British Columbia for Bill Frank. In 1967, the Vikings traded Jim Young to the BC Lions for Willie Fleming.

In 1961, there was an attempted trade between the AFL and NFL. The Dallas Texans tried to trade kicker Ben Agajanian to the Packers for taxi squad QB Val Keckin. Keckin refused to report, so the Packers sent the Texans cash instead.

2004: Champ Bailey (and a second-rounder) from Washington to Denver for Clinton Portis.
2005: RB Reuben Droughns from Denver to Cleveland for DE Ebenezer Ekuban and DT Michael Myers (this is after they acquired DT Gerard Warren from Cleveland in a separate trade and signed DE Courtney Brown in FA).