Everyone’s been expecting a Giannis Antetokounmpo trade for a few days, but I think many were still surprised when the Miami Heat were the ones who got it done. It felt like the Boston Celtics were the frontrunners for Giannis’s talents, but the Heat came in with the better package, and now Giannis is heading to South Beach.

After every NBA blockbuster trade, I see tons of people on social media saying “explain this to me in NFL terms.” So that’s exactly what I’m here to do. I went back through NFL history and found a few trades that are pretty comparable to the Giannis Antetokunmpo trade.

But first, we have to dissect this trade and figure out what we’re looking for in an NFL comp.

Giannis Antetokounmpo is Heading to South Beach

The Miami Heat were the 10-seed in the East last season with a 43-39 record and ended up losing in the first round of the play-in tournament. In fact, the Heat have been stuck in play-in purgatory for the last four years. They’re always good, but never seem to be good enough.

The Heat have, and always will, refuse to tank. If they’re not going to pick in the top-5 and get a superstar in the draft, they knew they’d have to make a move for one in a trade, and that’s exactly what they did on Monday.

But to see this trade go through, the Heat had to give up their future. They lost four young pieces in Tyler Herro, Kasparas Jakucionis, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Kel’el Ware plus three first round picks. That’s seven players under the age of 26 heading out the door in exchange for a 31-year-old Bobby Portis and 31-year-old Giannis Antetokounmpo.

The Heat basically traded their future for a chance to win a championship in the next 3-4 years. Have we seen an NFL trade like this before?

Packers Trade For Micah Parsons

It’s hard to compare NBA and NFL trades, because superstars aren’t typically worth as much in the NFL. Take Myles Garrett for example. He’s a top-three player in the entire league, and he went for two first rounders and one young player. It doesn’t typically take four players and three picks to get a blockbuster done. But still, I think the Micah Parsons trade last offseason is a pretty similar case.

The Green Bay Packers entered the 2025 offseason coming off their second-straight season as the NFC’s 7-seed. Just like the Heat, they’d been good, but not great, for quite some time and were looking to make a move to get the over the hump. So, they went out and made a move for one of the NFL’s best pass rushers, Micah Parsons, and in exchange, they gave up their next two first round picks and DT Kenny Clark.

This obviously isn’t a perfect comparison, because Clark was 29 years old and they didn’t give up anymore young talent, but in NFL terms, it’s pretty close. A middling team made a blockbuster trade for a bona fide superstar in hopes of getting over the hump. We’ll see if it works out for either of them.

Rams Trade For Matthew Stafford

After making it to the Super Bowl and losing in embarrassing fashion in 2017, Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams failed to win more than 10 games in a single season over the next two years. McVay obviously believed in his roster, though, because he shipped Jared Goff and two first round picks to the Detroit Lions in exchange for Matthew Stafford.

Again, trades in the NFL are never as big as the NBA, but this one was pretty massive. The Rams gave up a 26-year-old, two-time Pro Bowl quarterback that was two years removed from a Super Bowl berth, plus two first round picks, for a 32-year-old who had never even won a playoff game.

Everyone knew Stafford was great, but was he good enough to take a 10-win team to the Super Bowl? The answer to that question was yes. In his first year with the Rams, Stafford led them to a Super Bowl victory, and now he’s ready to try to bring them back in 2026.

Meanwhile, Jared Goff has become one of the most efficient quarterbacks in the entire NFL in Detroit, and the Lions used the two first round picks the Rams gave them to help them select players like Jameson Williams and Jahmyr Gibbs, who are both focal points of their potent offense.

The Rams took a big gamble here, just like the Heat are. If Stafford didn’t pan out, they would’ve looked like fools for making this trade. But he did, and now they’re Super Bowl champions. We’ll see if this works out for the Heat as well.

Broncos Trade For Russell Wilson

I think the best comparison for the Giannis trade is actually the Russell Wilson trade back in 2022. The Denver Broncos shipped off a core of young players, including Drew Lock and Noah Fant, plus two first round picks, two second round pick and a third round pick in exchange for the former Super Bowl champion.

You don’t see trades of this magnitude in the NFL as often as you do in the NBA. This was a true blockbuster trade, and when you look at the package it took to get Wilson, it’s probably about as close as you’re going to get to the Giannis deal in the NFL.

For the Heat’s sake, they better hope their gamble works out better than Denver’s. Russell Wilson played two years with the Broncos, where he combined for 6,500+ yards, 42 touchdowns and 19 interceptions while going 11-19 as a starter. He was released after his second year with the team, and Denver has gone on to find much more success with second-year quarterback Bo Nix under center.

The Giannis trade could go in two different directions for the Heat. Either they take Los Angeles’s route and he takes over and losing your young depth pieces doesn’t matter and they go on to compete for championships. Or they take Denver’s route and they crash and burn because they gave up far too much for him.

Hypothetical Trade Package

Since it’s so hard to find a direct NFL comp for the Giannis trade, I thought I’d also throw in a hypothetical one to show just how much the Heat gave up for Giannis.

Imagine the Atlanta Falcons, who just missed out on the playoffs last year and have a solid, young core of players, made a move for Joe Burrow, and “all” they had to do was give up Drake London, Matthew Bergeron, Divine Deablo and Jalon Walker plus three first round picks to get him.

You’d probably think they’re crazy for giving up a star offensive player (Tyler Herro) and three above-average, young players, as well as three first round picks for Burrow, even though he’s a top-five quarterback in the NFL, but that’s the kind of investment the Heat made into Giannis.

The NBA is a league where one player can carry you much further than in the NFL, so going all-in for a superstar isn’t always a bad idea, but this goes to show you just how much the Heat gave up to get Giannis.

It’s a gamble, but the Heat have made moves for superstars before (signing LeBron James) and it’s worked for them, so who am I or anyone else to say this was a bad trade?