On Saturday night, the NBA witnessed one of the craziest trades in league history: the Dallas Mavericks sent star guard Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for big man Anthony Davis.
Everyone was puzzled by the trade and had no idea why Dallas would send one of the best five players in the NBA, only 25, for a 31-year-old center who has been unable to stay healthy.
The Lakers won the deal, but the trade made me wonder how something like this would do in the NFL.
Dončić and Davis are two of the Top 10 players in the NBA who can win you a championship as the team’s best player.
A trade like this in the NFL would have to involve two Top 10 quarterbacks.
Many great players are not quarterbacks, but the teams that win the most every year have one of the best signal-callers in the league.
Could The Bills Trade Josh Allen
From a Buffalo Bills perspective, I wanted to see how many quarterbacks could make sense to be traded for Josh Allen.
The Bills wouldn’t trade Allen in a million years, and they should slam down every phone call they get for him— this is a fun exercise to do in the offseason.
There are many different opinions on where Allen ranks among all NFL quarterbacks, and he sits somewhere inside the Top Four, putting Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes first, Baltimore Ravens Lamar Jackson, Cincinnati Bengals Joe Burrow, and Allen somewhere 2-4.
Washington Commanders rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels was a stud in the first season. He could one day be the best quarterback in the NFL, so we will add him to the list.
The only quarterbacks in the NFL you could compare Allen to in a trade would be Mahomes, Burrow, Jackson, and Daniels.
Jayden Daniels
Daniels’s rookie season was fantastic, throwing for 3,568 yards and 25 touchdowns while picking up 891 rushing yards and six scores with his legs.
The Commanders selected Daniels as the second overall pick last April, bringing the franchise to the NFC title game nine months later.
Washington had the No. 2 pick because of their own doing, and you can’t fix everything on your roster in one offseason.
There were still a lot of holes on the team, but Daniels’s great play covered them up.
Daniels is only 24, four years younger than Allen, so that age could be a factor in this decision. It would be nice to have a franchise quarterback who’s only entering his second season, but yet again, we have only seen one great year from him.
I remember last year when Houston Texans rookie signal caller C.J. Stroud put up an epic season, taking a three-win squad the year prior to the Divisional Round of the playoffs.
Everyone considered Stroud, along with Burrow, Jackson, and Allen, one of the best players in the league; however, in year two, he fell off a bit.
Daniels could experience the same thing, and I’m not taking him over Allen, who has been a great player for the last five years.
Even though Allen will turn 29 this year, he is still in his prime and can play at a high level until he is 40.
I must see a few more great seasons from Daniels before I entertain a deal for him.
Lamar Jackson
Moving on now to Lamar Jackson. The Ravens quarterback and Allen were selected in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft.
Jackson won two NFL MVP Awards, something Allen hasn’t won, but he should be able to bring home his first sometime this week.
Allen and Jackson are a year apart in age, so that is a nonfactor here.
Jackson relies on his legs a little more, and he’s also three inches and 30 pounds lighter than Allen.
Racking up hits over the years will do numbers on your body into your early and mid-30s; Jackson could take that road in the next couple of seasons.
I will take Allen because he is 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighs almost 240 pounds, and his body can take a few more hits.
Joe Burrow
Joe Burrow is next in line, and a few years ago, he played in a game that Allen can say he knows nothing about.
In Burrow’s second season, he defeated the big-bad Chiefs in the postseason, something Allen has never done.
The Bengals went to the Super Bowl, losing to the Los Angeles Rams.
Three seasons have passed since the Bengals went to the Super Bowl, and they have made the playoffs once.
Missing out on the postseason two years ago wasn’t Burrow’s fault because he suffered a season-ending wrist injury in November.
Burrow played in all 17 games this past year and was excellent; however, the Queen City still didn’t make the postseason.
The Bengals’ defense wasn’t good, and they received most of the blame for their inability to make the playoffs.
Burrow would be the first to admit that Cincinnati’s failure to reach the postseason was also his fault.
Great quarterbacks figure out how to make the postseason, and Allen has done it the last six years with much less help.
Burrow is throwing to a top two wider receivers, Ja’Marr Chase, and another star, Tee Higgins.
Before being traded this past offseason, Allen only had Stefon Diggs. As a player, he’s closer to Higgins than Chase.
Even though Burrow is entering his sixth season while Allen is entering his eighth, they were born in the same year, so age is a zero factor here.
Like Jackson, Burrow is excellent, but I’ve seen Allen do more with less. With his legs and passing ability, he’s a factor in every area of the offense.
Patrick Mahomes
The last guy standing is Patrick Mahomes, a three-time Super Bowl champ looking for his fourth ring next Sunday.
Mahomes is the best quarterback in this generation, and there is no way the Chiefs would ever trade him.
If Kansas City made a stunning move and said, “Let’s get rid of him,” would Buffalo even make the trade?
There is no argument that Mahomes has been the best player in the league since 2019; we are talking about the future, not the past.
I know Allen is 0-4 against Mahomes in the postseason, but Allen has been remarkable in all those losses.
Mahomes is in a way better situation playing for one of the best head coaches ever, Andy Reid, has the best tight end of all time, Travis Kelce, and one of the best defenses in the NFL.
There isn’t a significant drop-off from Mahomes to Allen, and if I need a quarterback to win me a game tomorrow, I’ll take Mahomes. However, over the next five years, give me Allen.
Mahomes will have a few seasons where he falls off a little over the next few years because winning always affects you.
Tom Brady had three Super Bowl rings in his first five years and didn’t win his fourth until ten years later.
In those ten years, Brady didn’t win. Guys like Ben Roethlisberger and Peyton Manning came out of the AFC and won, and that’s probably what will happen to Allen soon.
I’m not taking Mahomes over Allen; the Bills signal caller means so much to the offense and the city that he will be in Buffalo forever.
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