The Inaugural NFL Trade Value Rankings, Part 1

Imagine growing up with a Ferrari in the garage that your dad only took out once a year. Wouldn't it drive you nuts? You would become a teenager, start taking driving lessons in a Corolla, occasionally get to drive the family Altima, and eventually, you would buy a 989 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser station wagonfrom your boss for $1 to serve as your first car, just like I did. All along, though, you would wait for the day where you would finally wake up to a set of Ferrari keys and a note of caution on your nightstand. After countless hours of showing your dad that you knew how to drive, you'd get a chance to take a legend out onto the street.

I have been trusted with the keys to the Ferrari of Grantland. This is our first NFL Trade Value Column. And just like any proud-but-suspicious father, Simmons is going to be riding along and backseat driving throughout — you can read his thoughts on my rankings in the footnotes, almost like the director's commentary for a DVD. And just like a director's commentary on a DVD, you can mute him whenever you want.

Of course, this is a much more difficult column to put together than the NBA version.¹ I've got to weigh the relative merits of four times as many players across more than a dozen different positions while working with the obtuse financial system of a league that rarely ever makes challenge trades. It wasn't easy. When I was struggling, I turned to the official video of the NBA Trade Value Column, the YouTube clip of "Roundball Rock" that has Simmons's head transposed atop that of John Tesh. It gave me the natural energy boost of soft rock's most motivational sports television anthem with the added kick of nightmare fuel, ensuring I'd stay awake for nights to come. After days of tinkering and toying, I had a 50-player list that actually seemed like it might make some sense.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8312966/ranking-players-contracts-national-football-league