'05 NFL Draft Trade Value Chart

so it'd be open bidding on EVERYONE???

sorry, but that idea doesn't really seem like it'd work out at all in any way.

Why not?

instead of a picking order, you're just going to have the league assign values? thats just another way of doing the same thing (determining salaries), and that sounds bound for all sorts of legal troubles (misrating players etc)... and what happens when 8 teams want the same guy? an open bidding war? that'd make everyone MORE expensive. It just doesn't seem well thought out in terms of real world implications.

You still have a draft order - so in the case of 8 teams wanting the same guy, the first team to pick would get him, same as now, no bidding war. However, the salaries would be basically set before the draft, so there'd be no question of a guy being worth the 6th spot in the 2nd round, but not being worth the 4th spot in the 2nd round - all that is determined up front.

I think the biggest problem would be getting the players' union to agree to it - the current system pretty well assures that all of the marquee players are employed and well-paid, in my system it would be possible, although doubtful, for a first-round pick to go undrafted.

Of course it's not well-thought out - it's a post on a message board, but I think it could be viable if the owners and players agreed to it and worked on the details.

I think the biggest problem would be getting the players' union to agree to it - the current system pretty well assures that all of the marquee players are employed and well-paid, in my system it would be possible, although doubtful, for a first-round pick to go undrafted.
The NFLPA will go for this as soon as Danny Boy straps on a helmet and takes the field as the Redskins starting QB. For those keeping track of the timeline that would be three weeks after never.

The chart is all scrunched up. Since nobody else has mentioned it, I assume it's just me, but is there anything I have to do to see it correctly?

The chart is all scrunched up. Since nobody else has mentioned it, I assume it's just me, but is there anything I have to do to see it correctly?

what browser do you use?

It looks fine to me with IE and Firefox

It only works in IE on my computer - I use Firefox and didn't think to check IE. The profootballweekly chart works fine in Firefox.

Anyhow, it's interesting that, after all the math, the profootballweekly article notes:
In the end, it's not about math. It's about knowing players and trusting your instincts as an evaluator, as many old-school coaches and scouts will tell you.