Was it a bad dream or did Easter just culminate with a friendly trade between division rivals Philadelphia and Washington? Goodness! In putting my sanity aside, it was nice drama to add to an otherwise quiet Easter weekend... Regardless of the consequences effecting the fan-loving franchises of Philly and D.C., it's more interesting to see how this effects the NFL draft, namely the top of round one.
I believe things are beginning to shake-out. Who loses in this trade? QB Jimmy Clausen, who now (potentially) begins to free-fall out of the top five. St. Louis will take QB Sam Bradford with the top overall selection. If a trade were possible, I'm sure they'd consider moving out of that spot... but there's no chance of a team wanting the #1 overall slot. So to St. Louis goes Bradford. The second selection shall stay in the hands of Detroit and they will use that selection to further advance the offense and overall protection of franchise QB Matthew Stafford. OT Russell Okung isn't one of the top two players in the draft, but he will go to Detroit. Again, trades will not come into play with these top two slots.
Someone would love to move into slot #3 to get their choice of DT's... Both Suh and McCoy are unbelievable talent that in most years should not get past the #1 and #2 choice. Positional needs dictated a strange scenario out of the pathetic Lions and Rams, thus we end up with a unique scenario as the #3 and #4 choices come up. At #3 I believe the Bucs are thrilled to get their hands on the best overall college prospect, Ndamukong Suh. Right now, I will exclaim that it can be expected that the Redskins will shop heavily to see what team will give up the most to come up to #4 to get DT Gerald McCoy. After the Donovan McNabb trade, Washington is only left with the following four selections: #4 (round one); #103 (round four); #135 (fifth round); and #211 (seventh). Washington will be trading out of #4... Who's the potential suitors?
... The Browns select 7th and also have 10 picks in the upcoming draft. They have three selections in round three (#71/#85/#92)... I believe the Browns could part with pick #85 and #95 to go get the guy at #4 that Mike Holmgren covets. Likewise, how perfect for the Redskins, they only drop three spots (from #4 to #7) and pick up much needed draft selections to rebuild the Mike Shanahan system in Washington.
... The Seahawks select 6th and also represent a team that could make a move up. The Seahawks also pick 14th in round one and have plenty of other draft picks at their disposal. Does Seattle move up for Gerald McCoy? Do they really want Jimmy Clausen? Do they wait for Clausen at #6 or do they fear a team will leap-frog them and zip into the #5 spot where Kansas City presently sits? Seattle could be willing to go up to #4 for either McCoy or Clausen.
Here's a shot at the first five picks: #1) St. Louis- Sam Bradford, QB; #2) Detroit- Russell Okung, OT; #3) Tampa Bay- Ndamukong Suh, DT; #4) Cleveland [trade-up]- Gerald McCoy, DT; #5) Kansas City- Eric Berry, FS
Those are selections I'm beginning to feel pretty comfortable with. Beyond that, a lot of things still need to shake loose. At #6 one would suspect Seattle to go ahead and take QB Jimmy Clausen. At #7 the Redskins could properly address offensive line issues and protect new quarterback Donovan McNabb. Bryan Bulaga is an obvious selection given his ability to transition rather quickly to Mike Shanahan's zone blocking technique. From his days at Iowa, he's quite familiar with what to do in the type of scheme that will be run in Washington. Needless to say, the thesis of today's thoughts is this: The Washington-Philadelphia trade just began the foundations of a round one shake-up. Look hard and consider to yourselves about the chances of Washington trading out of #4 now... And look at the Clev-Brownies as that perfect match.
