04-02-2018, 02:37 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dam8610
That's called smart GMing, reading the field, and being willing to take calculated, intelligent risks. The first five picks are:
1) Cleveland Browns
2) New York Giants
3) New York Jets
4) Cleveland Browns
5) Denver Broncos
The common thread of these teams is they ALL need a franchise QB. Cleveland has had a void there since coming back into existence, Eli Manning is 37, the Jets best QB in recent memory is Chad Pennington, and the Broncos have been on the hunt to replace Peyton for four years now. Of course, Cleveland has 2 top 5 picks, but they're also enamored with Saquon Barkley and they just invested in DE. If they don't trade down, Barkley or Fitzpatrick is their pick at 4. Let's say they do trade down, though, say Buffalo gives them enough that they pull the trigger, and Buffalo gets QB4, leaving Denver on the outside looking in. Denver isn't going to draft Chubb, they have two first round picks at the position and a solid player in Shaquil Barrett. They likely take Nelson, Fitzpatrick, or Smith. Any way you look at it, the first team in the draft whose foremost need is a premier pass rusher is still the Colts. Ballard knows he needs a top pass rusher and knows this is his spot to get one, but he's smart enough to know where he needs to be to accomplish that as well. He traded to the lowest spot he could while still being reasonably assured he'd get Chubb (Tampa will take him at 7 if he's still there) and got a lot of value out of the deal. This was smart dealmaking and smart team building by Ballard.
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Agree with you on the apparent motivations of each of these teams, and I certainly agree that Ballard is taking a calculated risk by trading down (whether he's targeting Chubb or someone else). The Giants could conceivably be interested in Chubb given their recent trade of JPP but, as I mentioned above, I just can't see them holding on the #2 pick in the face of a Jets-like offer unless they are targeting a QB (or, I suppose, if they have reason to believe that another team will top the offer)
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