What was so brilliant about Snead's move for Stafford is that it also sent Goff's contract elsewhere. And those huge contracts are always a barrier for the trade. In fact, I'd say that in a sense one of those two 1st rounders given up by Snead was the buy-off price for Detroit to acquire Goff's contract.
The Rams did a similar thing in acquiring Von Miller. A 2nd and 3rd seems awfully high for a still good, but fading star. But, the real deal was that one of the picks was essentially a buy off of Miller's contract. The Broncos agreed to pay several million left on Miller's contract while the Rams picked up less than a million of it. It was a pick in exchange for contract money.
No doubt Snead isn't the only GM to do this. It's just that sometimes as fans (and a lot of sports media) those sorts of nuances go unnoticed and unreported.
