When the Dallas Cowboys traded edge rusher Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers in August 2025, some were quick to label it one of the worst trades of all time.
But where, if anywhere, does it actually rank among the worst in NFL history?
Only time will tell how the Parsons deal ages. There have been plenty of other miserable trades in the league’s past, some recent and others much older, that aged extremely poorly in the months and years after they happened.
There are seven trades, in particular, that USA TODAY Sports is ranking as the worst deals in NFL history.
Worst trades in NFL history
7. Falcons trade Brett Favre to Packers
The Parsons trade was not the first time the Packers have been the beneficiaries of a poor decision by another team, though it’s hard to blame the Falcons too much, given what they knew at the time.
In his rookie season in 1991, Favre played two games for Atlanta and was intercepted twice on four pass attempts and had zero completions. So when the Packers came calling and offered a first-round pick for the former second-rounder, the Falcons accepted what, at the time, was a no-brainer deal. The rest is history.
Favre went on to earn two Pro Bowl nods in his first two seasons with Green Bay, then won three straight NFL MVP awards from 1995 to 1997. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016.
6. Titans send A.J. Brown to the Eagles
The writing was on the wall in Tennessee ahead of the 2022 season. Their star receiver was set to hit free agency following the season. With the recently inflated wide receiver market leading to trades of other stars around the league that offseason – Davante Adams to the Raiders and Tyreek Hill to the Dolphins – the Titans decided that they weren’t going to pay Brown and would recoup draft capital for him instead.
The Titans ended up sending Brown to Philadelphia on draft night for the Eagles’ No. 18 overall pick. They used it to select Treylon Burks – whom the team waived just a few seasons after he was selected – and Brown went on to have the best couple of years of his career in the two subsequent seasons, leading him to sign another extension with the Eagles in 2024.
5. Chargers trade up for Ryan Leaf
The Chargers were desperate to take a quarterback in the 1998 NFL Draft, but there were only two highly touted prospects, and they had the No. 3 overall pick. Their solution? Trading their third overall pick, their second-round pick, a 1999 first-round pick and All-Pro kick returner Eric Metcalf to get the second overall pick from the Cardinals.
When the Colts took Peyton Manning with the first pick, the Chargers took the other top quarterback prospect, Ryan Leaf. He went on to be one of the biggest busts in NFL history, playing just four seasons and winning four of his 21 games as a starter.
4. Browns nab Colts’ first-rounder in Trent Richardson trade
Richardson began his career in Cleveland after the Brown traded up to the No. 3 overall pick to select him in the 2012 NFL Draft. He finished his first season with the Browns with 1,317 scrimmage yards and 12 total touchdowns, then made it only two games into his second season in Cleveland before he was traded.
The Colts sent their 2014 first-round pick to the Browns to acquire Richardson after Week 2 of the 2013 season in the wake of an injury to Vick Ballard in what wound up being his final career game.
Richardson never came close to the level of production he had in his final season at Alabama (1,740 yards, 21 touchdowns) or even his rookie season with the Browns. The Colts waived him after the 2014 season.
3. Broncos send five picks, three players to the Seahawks for Russell Wilson
Wilson’s time in Seattle was nearing its expiration date by the end of the 2021 season. The Seahawks had fired offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer – then-architect of the ‘Let Russ Cook’ era that saw some of Wilson’s best years between 2018 and 2020 – after the 2020 season, a move that frustrated Wilson.
So, the Broncos took another shot at finding their post-Peyton Manning era replacement by sending five picks, including two first-rounders, to Seattle. The trade also sent quarterback Drew Lock, defensive lineman Shelby Harris and tight end Noah Fant to the Seahawks.
Wilson’s two-year stint in Denver was very disappointing. He led the Broncos to a 4-11 start in his first year with the team under head coach Nathaniel Hackett in 2022, and he was the NFL’s leader in sacks taken with 55.
In 2023, new head coach Sean Payton righted the ship a bit more – to the tune of a 7-8 record with the veteran under center – but still benched Wilson for the final two games of the season in a move that indicated Wilson’s time as a Bronco was up. The team released him the following offseason
2. Browns trade three first-round picks for Deshaun Watson
The Deshaun Watson trade is one of the two deals on this list so bad it has its own Wikipedia page.
In March 2022, after the then-Texans quarterback had sat out a full season following an unsuccessful trade request, multiple – nearly two dozen in total – massage therapists came forward accusing Watson of sexual assault.
Two days after the first allegation came to light, the Browns traded their first-round picks in 2022, 2023 and 2024, along with a 2022 fourth-round pick, a 2023 third-round pick and a 2024 fourth-round pick to Houston in exchange for Watson and a 2024 sixth-round pick. Cleveland then immediately signed the quarterback to a fully guaranteed, five-year, $230 million contract extension in an unprecedented move.
The NFL suspended Watson for 11 games in the wake of the sexual assault allegations, meaning the quarterback did not make his Browns debut until Week 13 of the 2022 season, nearly two full years since his last appearance in a game.
Watson has since played a total of 19 games for the Browns as he’s battled numerous injuries and has never come anywhere close to playing like the 4,000-yard passer and three-time Pro Bowler he was in Houston. He is set to miss most, if not all, of the 2025 season after re-rupturing his Achilles tendon while rehabbing from the original rupture he suffered in October 2024.
Meanwhile, the Texans used the extra picks the Browns gave up to rebuild their roster. After a 3-13-1 2022 season, Houston drafted C.J. Stroud with the second overall pick in 2023 and have won a playoff game in each of the two seasons since.
1. Vikings trade so many picks for Herschel Walker
This trade is the other one to earn a distinction of ‘so bad it has its own Wikipedia page.’
After the Cowboys drafted him in 1985 then signed him in 1986, Walker established himself as Dallas’ best player by 1988, his third season as a pro.
The year before, the former Georgia Bulldog led the NFL with 1,606 yards from scrimmage on 269 touches and earned Pro Bowl and second-team All-Pro nods. In 1988, he rushed for 1,514 yards and five touchdowns and caught 53 passes for 505 receiving yards to put him at 2,019 scrimmage yards.
When the Cowboys began the 1989 season 0-5, they started a bidding war over Walker, and the Vikings emerged as ‘winners.’ All they had to give up was their first- and second-round picks in 1990, 1991, and 1992, as well as a sixth-round pick in 1990 and a third-round pick in 1992.
Minnesota had actually traded five players and just three draft picks to the Cowboys initially, offering extra draft picks to Dallas that were conditional on those five players’ releases. The Cowboys cut all four of the players that reported to Dallas – and traded running back Darrin Nelson, the lone holdout, to the Chargers – to claim all of those additional, conditional picks.
Team owner/general manager Jerry Jones used that extra draft capital to construct the super-powered Cowboys rosters of the early ’90s and won three Super Bowls in four years.
As for Walker, he played just two more full seasons for the Vikings and never surpassed 900 rushing yards in those seasons. The Eagles signed him in 1992, ending his tenure in Minnesota.
