Pittsburgh acquired rookie punter Frank Lambert from the New…
Pittsburgh acquired rookie punter Frank Lambert from the New York Giants on September 1, 1965 for an undisclosed draft choice. Lambert immediately became Pittsburgh's punter and appeared in all 14 regular-season games in both 1965 and 1966. The exact Giants draft return is not identified in the reviewed public record, so no downstream selection is assigned.
New York Giants Received
- pick draft pick (round and selection not identified)
Pittsburgh Steelers Received
- player Frank Lambert
Trade Analysis
The September 1, 1965 trade is directly supported by transaction records and by Lambert's own account of how he reached Pittsburgh. Pro Sports Transactions lists the Giants sending Frank Lambert to the Steelers for a draft pick with the specific round and selection left unidentified. Lambert later recalled that New York had drafted him but also selected Ernie Koy, whose versatility made him more useful to the Giants, so Lambert was traded to Pittsburgh before the regular season. That context explains why the Giants were willing to move a rookie they had selected in the fifth round. Pittsburgh received immediate, measurable regular-season value. NFL career statistics show Lambert appearing in all 14 Steelers games in 1965 and all 14 again in 1966. He punted 78 times for 3,518 yards as a rookie, an average of 45.1 yards, then added another 78 punts for 3,284 yards in 1966. Across the two seasons he produced 156 punts for 6,802 yards and a 43.6-yard average. Pro Football Archives likewise records 28 NFL games for Pittsburgh and identifies the Giants as his original NFL drafting club before the trade. The New York side is less complete because the public transaction record reviewed for this pass does not identify which draft pick the Giants ultimately received, its round, or the player eventually chosen with it. TradeVerdicts therefore removes the unsupported duplicate undisclosed-consideration placeholders from the legacy row and preserves only the source-backed player-for-pick structure. Without a verified downstream pick chain, it would be unsafe to assume that New York received no value. At the same time, Pittsburgh clearly received two full seasons of starting punting production from Lambert. The existing Even Trade verdict and C/C grades are retained as the conservative source-safe outcome because one side's realized production is known while the other side's draft return remains unresolved. Confidence rises from low to medium because the trade itself and Lambert's Steelers production are well documented, though the exact Giants pick is not.