With the NFL Draft fast approaching, fans everywhere are speculating about what kinds of moves teams may make during the waning days. In a recent article. Fox Sports' Ralph Vacciano tried to come up with one trade for every NFL team, and his trade suggestion for the Atlanta Falcons was nonsensical at best.
""New Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski knows the ups and downs of the 27-year-old Jeudy, and he knows he needs a No. 2 receiver (currently either Jahan Dotson or Olamide Zaccheaus will fill that role). Jeudy had a terrible season last year, but in 2024 he caught 90 passes for 1,229 yards with Jameis Winston, Deshaun Watson, Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Bailey Zappe throwing him the ball. He’d be a huge help for No. 1 WR Drake London with Tua Tagovailoa and/or Michael Penix Jr. behind center.""Ralph Vacciano
While the idea behind the Falcons trading for a WR can make sense, there's a few things that don't. The take of slotting a trade from Cleveland to Atlanta due to the Kevin Stefanski connection and his past with Tua Tagovailoa feels lazy. There's more than enough reasoning to say that it wouldn't make sense because of the decline that Jeudy had under Stefanski in his second year with Cleveland.
Then comes the valuation of what Vacchiano has for Jeudy. For a player who has never really shown that he can be the guy in an NFL offense and would be on his third team, a second-round pick would be extortion. Jeudy's value around the league would be closer to a fourth-round pick, if the Browns were lucky enough to have a suitor for him that wanted to pay that much.
The Atlanta Falcons are not trading their most valuable 2026 draft pick for Jerry Jeudy
Another reason why this just doesn't make sense is how Ian Cunningham is trying to get more picks. Not trade away the premium picks the Falcons do have just to get a middling talent on a decent contract. Cunningham was quoted by the official Atlanta Falcons team website's Tori McElhaney during his introductory press conference about his affinity for draft picks:
""For us, it's one of those things where we have to go into this thinking we only have five picks. That's worst case. If we come out of it with just five picks, we come out of it with just five picks. We are already looking at different ways to potentially manufacture some more. But if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out.""Atlanta Falcons GM Ian Cunningham
For a man who likes to keep picks, and potentially get more picks, this doesn't sound like the kind of move he would be making. And when you consider this is talking about giving away the best pick he has available in his first draft as a general manager, that just makes it seem even more nonsensical.
But the biggest reason why the trade just isn't feasible is the cap. On the Falcons side of things, they would be fine with the cap because of the way the option bonuses are structured, they would only owe Jeudy a $15.5 million option bonus in 2027 and then essentially minimum salaries of around $1.5 million in 2026 and 2027.
But on the Browns side, if they were to trade away Jeudy, they would have to eat $11.95 million in cap space of their remaining $21 million just to get rid of a player who would have more value for them than for the Falcons, so expect Atlanta to draft a receiver instead of making this idea a reality.