Aug 22, 2024
The Only Trade
A minor late-round startup-draft pick swap with MayeTHEforceBewithMe -- the single transaction in the franchise's entire trade history.
The State of the Franchise
Just Purdy
A Trust Me, Bro Analytics Institute franchise file, by Roster McRosterface, Senior Dynasty Correspondent
Set It and Forget It
Just Purdy has made exactly one trade in its entire history -- a minor 2024 rookie-pick swap with MayeTHEforceBewithMe, and nothing since. Eighty-six percent of the current roster is still the team that was drafted in 2024. For one season, that patience looked like a legitimate strategy: an 8-6 record and a 7th-place finish in 2024 wasn't a playoff berth, but it wasn't a problem either. Joe Burrow and Brock Purdy anchored a genuinely credible quarterback room, and the rest of the roster filled in around them.
2025 is where the strategy stopped paying off. The same, entirely untouched roster fell to 4-10 and a 13th-place finish -- a 29-percentage-point drop in win rate, the 4th-steepest collapse of any team in the league. When a roster ages and nothing gets refreshed around it, this is what the back half of that curve looks like.
A Trade Desk That Never Opens
There isn't a "trade desk era" to describe for this franchise, and that's itself the story. While every other team in the league has been actively reshaping its roster -- some obsessively, like Of Mice and Mendozas' 26 trades -- Just Purdy has stood still. The single trade on record, back in August 2024, swapped late-round startup picks with MayeTHEforceBewithMe and never repeated the exercise.
Current State of the Union
The roster composition tells the whole story on its own: 86% drafted-and-held, a handful of waiver adds, effectively nothing acquired via trade. That's not a criticism of the original draft -- Joe Burrow and Brock Purdy in the same QB room is still a real asset -- but a two-year-old roster with zero reinforcement is exactly the kind of team that fades exactly the way this one did in 2025.
Franchise History
All-time, Just Purdy sits at 12-16 (42%), 9th of 14 -- a record now weighted down by the 2025 decline more than it's lifted by the respectable 2024 debut. The franchise's entire story to date is really two chapters: a competitive rookie season, and the roster aging in place the year after with nobody stepping in to stop it.
The Institute's Outlook
Trust Me, Bro Analytics projects Just Purdy's Vibes Above Replacement to keep declining unless the front office finally opens the trade line, which the data suggests is possible but not likely. The franchise's Adjusted Excuse Rate currently reads "it worked in 2024," which is true and also no longer relevant. Its Projected Future Championship Proximity depends entirely on whether "one trade in two years" becomes "two trades in three."
The Institute will continue monitoring this situation, quietly, since that appears to be the house style.
Methodology: every figure on this page is computed directly from the league's reconciled tables -- the all-time and season-by-season standings, the pick registry, the custody log, and the trade ledger -- not estimated.