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Is Lamar Jackson for Sam Darnold fair?

Lamar Jackson and Sam Darnold have been on opposite sides of 23 real dynasty trades.

Not simulations and not a calculator lining up two numbers. Every one of them is a completed trade from a public Sleeper league, graded at the player values that were current on the day it happened.

None of them were a straight one-for-one. Every time these two crossed, something else was attached to close it.

This is the part a calculator cannot tell you. In 6 of these deals exactly one side had to attach something extra, and 5 of those 6 times it was the Sam Darnold side (1 the other way). The side that keeps having to add is the side holding the lesser asset, so the market has been treating Lamar Jackson as the more valuable of the two.

23
Deals they were both in
0
Straight up, one for one
1 / 5
One side sweetened: Lamar Jackson / Sam Darnold

What they cost today

Everything above is priced on the day each deal happened, which is the only honest way to grade a completed trade. It is not what they cost now. Today Lamar Jackson prices at 4,824 and Sam Darnold at 431, so the market currently rates Lamar Jackson about 11.2x the other. A pair can lean one way across its history and price the opposite way now; that gap is the whole reason to check the deal in front of you rather than the deal someone made in 2023.

Values as of 2026-09-04.

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The deals themselves

DateMarginWent with Lamar JacksonWent with Sam Darnold
2026-09-06+67%Alec PierceColston Loveland
2026-05-10+73%1 1st
2026-05-07+19%Jayden Reed, Jalen Tolbert, Nico Collins, 10 moreJerry Jeudy, Dak Prescott, Jauan Jennings, 7 more
2026-03-29+33%2 2ndsQuentin Johnston, 2 1sts
2026-03-13+40%Xavier Worthy, Javonte Williams, 1 1stWoody Marks, Michael Pittman, 1 1st, 1 2nd
2026-02-18-1%Brian Thomas, Pat Bryant, J.K. Dobbins, 1 moreA.J. Brown, Nico Collins, Javonte Williams, 1 more
2025-12-28+33%George Kittle, Rashod Bateman, 1 later pickBucky Irving, Rhamondre Stevenson, Josh Downs
2025-11-24-22%Ladd McConkey, Jalen Milroe, 2 1sts, 1 2nd
2025-06-13+54%Tyreek HillChris Godwin, Brandon Aiyuk, Rachaad White, 1 more, 1 2nd
2025-03-24-19%Mike Evans, Khalil Herbert, Isaiah LikelyJalen Coker, CeeDee Lamb, Kyren Williams

Read each row as: Lamar Jackson, plus anything in the third column, was traded for Sam Darnold plus anything in the fourth. An em dash means that side sent nobody else. Margin is the value gap at that day’s prices from the side that received Lamar Jackson; positive means that side came out ahead.

The whole-deal margin

Across all 23, the whole-deal value gap runs +26.0% from the side that received Lamar Jackson, so the side ending up with Lamar Jackson has generally come out ahead on face value. That measures the entire trade, every piece included, not these two players against each other.

Why this beats a calculator on this exact question

A calculator answers “is Lamar Jackson for Sam Darnold fair” by subtracting one number from another, and it gives every manager in your league the same answer. That tells you nothing about whether the trade closes. What closes it is whether one side has to attach a piece, and which side that usually is. The 23 deals above are the record of what leagues actually agreed to when these two were on the table together.

How trade fairness actually works →

Full trade histories

Every Lamar Jackson trade · Every Sam Darnold trade

Other matchups for these two

All players with real trade data →

Values from DynastyProcess and nflverse. Trades from public Sleeper leagues. When the data will not support a fair grade I leave it out and say so. Is this trade fair? · All players · Research · Privacy · Terms