Jimmy Johnson's Draft Chart Still Guides Some Trades

Before the draft, I wrote that the famous chart popularized by former Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson had become obsolete because the chart dates to the pre-salary cap era. To quote myself:

That chart, for instance, says the first pick in the draft is worth three times as much as the 16th pick. That might be true if we don't take the salary cap into consideration, but when you remember how much of a drain on the salary cap the first pick is (Mario Williams signed a six-year, $54 million contract), the first pick isn't worth nearly that much.

However, Doug Drinen has analyzed all the trades from the weekend's draft, and he writes today that "teams do stay pretty close to the pick value chart when exchanging picks in the same draft."

So that would indicate that the chart is, in fact, still an important guide to teams as they consider trading picks. But there's one important part of this to remember: The salary cap hit for rookies is enormous at the very top of the draft, and that has made trades of Top 10 picks a thing of the past.

Teams don't want to trade into the Top 10 because they don't want to pay a Top 10 salary. Until the NFL changes its rookie salary structure (and there are no indications that such a move is on the horizon), teams might as well throw the chart out the window when it comes to Top 10 picks.