By now, all the phone calls have been made to other teams. Every team has a sense for which other team has an interest in the several players who falls in that team’s draft slot and they’ve charted the contingencies–which team gets called for which player.
For the Washington Redskins who have the tenth overall pick, maybe they call the St. Louis Rams to complete a conversation started weeks ago in what the Rams might exchange for a shot at Alabama wide receiver Julio Jones.
If North Carolina defensive end Robert Quinn is available, the call may go to New England who could use defensive help.
Redskins coach Mike Shanahan hinted that a trade down would interest him, according to Mike Jones’ story in The Insider.
“If somebody comes up and all of a sudden at that 10th pick they have something they want and we can move back and pick up additional picks, yeah that could be a real reality,” Shanahan said. “Especially if we’re able to get real value.
“For some, it could be a wide receiver, outside linebacker. A team feels very good about their football team, they’ve got multiple draft picks and they move up and take him. And if that happens, they say ‘We need that one guy and that will be the difference in our football team,’ then they can make that decision very quickly, and a lot of times, it ends up being best for both teams.”
New England will get many calls. They have six picks in the first three rounds. Even they cannot afford to use them all. The Patriots hold the 17th (from Oakland) and 28th overall picks. Seventeenth could be a sweet spot for the Redskins, if packaged with a fourth round pick and a late round 2012 pick. That could position Washington to take quarterback Jake Locker or Christian Ponder without reaching and back-fill a pick lost in the Donovan McNabb trade.
New England is the rare team that strategically trades players for picks. Their 17th pick came by trading DL Richard Seymour in 2009. I betcha Bill Belichick is surprised by the 17th pick. Oakland finished 5-11 in 2009, giving them the eighth overall pick in the ’10 Draft.
The 2010 Raiders improved to 8-8 while contending for the division crown, so the value of the pick received for Seymour deteriorated to 17th.
Jason Campbell was the sometime quarterback for the Raiders. That begs the question, why is Campbell not mentioned in any discussion of Washington’s draft options, as in “Washington’s fourth round pick was received in trade for Jason Campbell?”. Because the Shanahans held Campbell in such light regard that, they gave him up for a 2012 fourth round draft pick. If only Shanahan held out for a pick in this year’s draft.
Oakland is a rising team. The better they do, the lower that pick in the draft order.
There is no certainty Washington will trade out of the 10th pick. There are rumors Washington will trade up instead of down. Coach Shanahan is careful, as he should be, to hide his intent. We don’t have a clue what he will do. I hope he does.
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