Defense wins championships.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why NFL teams are becoming more willing to part with valuable draft picks for elite defenders.<\/p>\n
Trading two first-rounders for a player has been rare with fewer than 20 such deals during the past 40 years. However, three of those have occurred in the past 6\u00bd months and each was for a superstar defensive player.<\/p>\n
Five-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Maxx Crosby became the latest premier talent traded for two No. 1s when the Baltimore Ravens acquired the 28-year-old star Friday night from the Las Vegas Raiders, two people with knowledge of the deal said.<\/p>\n
Both people spoke on condition of anonymity because the trade can\u2019t be announced until the league\u2019s new year starts this week.<\/p>\n
The last two Super Bowls were decided by superior defenses. Seattle\u2019s \u201cDark Side\u201d defense sacked Drake Maye six times in a 29-13 victory against New England last month.<\/p>\n
Last year, the Eagles sacked Patrick Mahomes six times in Philadelphia\u2019s 40-22 victory against the Chiefs.<\/p>\n
Adding Crosby is a significant boost for the Ravens, who\u2019ve fallen short in the playoffs several times despite successful regular seasons led by two-time NFL MVP Lamar Jackson.<\/p>\n
Crosby upgrades a defense that had just 30 sacks in 2025, tied for 28th in the NFL. He could thrive under new coach Jesse Minter, a former defensive coordinator.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a look at some other trades involving two first-round picks during the past five years:<\/p>\n
Sauce Gardner<\/p>\n
The Colts sent two first-rounders and wide receiver Adonai Mitchell to the Jets for the two-time All-Pro cornerback last November. Indianapolis was 7-2 at the time but injuries to quarterback Daniel Jones and Gardner helped derail their season.<\/p>\n
Micah Parsons<\/p>\n
The Packers traded two first-rounders and three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark to Dallas for the three-time All-Pro edge rusher a week before the start of last season.<\/p>\n
Parsons had 12\u00bd sacks in 14 games, helping Green Bay start 9-3-1. They didn\u2019t win a game without him after he tore an ACL.<\/p>\n
Russell Wilson<\/p>\n
The Denver Broncos made a blockbuster deal to acquire the 10-time Pro Bowl quarterback in March 2022, sending two first-round picks, two second-round picks, a fifth-round pick, QB Drew Lock, tight end Noah Fant, and defensive lineman Shelby Harris to Seattle. Wilson went 11-19 in only two seasons in Denver before he was released.<\/p>\n
Deshaun Watson<\/p>\n
In March 2022, the Cleveland Browns made what turned out to be one of the worst trades in NFL history when they acquired Watson and a 2024 sixth-round pick from the Houston Texans in exchange for three first-round picks, a third-round pick and two fourths.<\/p>\n
The Browns then signed Watson to a $230-million contract fully guaranteed. He\u2019s played just 19 games in four years, going 9-10.<\/p>\n
Matthew Stafford<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Rams traded quarterback Jared Goff, two first-rounder and a third to the Detroit Lions for Stafford in January 2021.<\/p>\n
\u00a0The three-time Pro Bowl QB led the Rams to a Super Bowl title that season and was AP NFL MVP in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defense wins championships. That\u2019s why NFL teams are becoming more willing to part with valuable draft picks for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-526267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}