The New Orleans Saints and Chicago Bears completed a surprise trade in the minutes leading up to the fourth round of the 2023 NFL draft, which helped the Saints vault up the board while the Bears moved down a dozen spots (adding a fifth-round pick for their trouble). New Orleans selected Old Dominion right tackle Nick Saldiveri with their new pick.
So how did the various NFL draft trade value charts floating around grade this move? Legendary coach Jimmy Johnson is credited for first introducing the model that all others are based off of, but these days there are multiple variants to consider. Teams use their own models so there’s some variance from one war room to the next. Let’s see what they made of the Saints-Bears trade:
Rich Hill Model
- New Orleans received: No. 103 (34 points)
- Chicago received: Nos. 115 (26 points) and 165 (9 points)
Difference: Chicago +1
Jimmy Johnson model
- New Orleans received: No. 103 (88 points)
- Chicago received: Nos. 115 (64 points) and 165 (24.2 points)
Difference: Chicago +0.2
Fitzgerald-Spielberger model
- New Orleans received: No. 103 (651 points)
- Chicago received: Nos. 115 (595 points) and 165 (412 points)
Difference: Chicago +356
Ourlads model
- New Orleans received: No. 103 (88 points)
- Chicago received: Nos. 115 (64 points) and 165 (25.4 points)
Difference: Chicago +1.4
Analysis
Each of the models liked this deal better for Chicago than New Orleans to varying degrees, though it’s still a good trade for the Saints because they own another fifth-round pick (and it’s their earlier selection at No. 146, too). It isn’t nearly as lopsided as other trades we’ve seen the Saints make in the past.
