During the Monday pre draft press conference, Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert unsurprisingly ruled out the team trading up in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft. Colbert did say, however, that trading down was an option and even went as far as to say he thinks it’s “a real possibility.”
So, how far would Colbert be willing to move down? When you take into account that he said there were at least 19 players the team would be happy with getting in the first round, one could speculate that if three quarterbacks were to go prior to their turn to pick, that moving down seven spots could possibly be an option.
Colbert talked at depth on Monday about what goes into trading down.
“When you trade back, you want to see how many places you can go back, what you’re going to get in return and what are the odds that I’m going to get that player or that group of players,” said Colbert.. “If we trade back three spots, very rarely will you do it without three people you would take (still on the board). You want to be in a no-lose situation. Could you roll the dice and go 67 percent? Sure, but as a general rule you never want to trade yourself away from a specific group of players.”
The Philadelphia Eagles currently hold the 22nd overall selection and on Monday, Peter King of Sports Illustrated wrote in his Monday Morning Quarterback column that the Eagles may consider moving up to the middle of round one to draft LSU wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.
Keep hearing they want in on the prime receiver action, and the receiver they want could be LSU’s Odell Beckham, who can play outside, inside in the slot and as a returner. But the Eagles would have to trade up, and GM Howie Roseman is doing his due diligence, talking to at least two teams in the mid-round neighborhood, when Beckham would likely go. But the cost could be too rich for the Eagles’ blood. They may have to settle for Marqise Lee, who would be some consolation prize.
Colbert did say on Monday that he only uses the trade value chart as a guide for what other teams might be thinking. With that being said, the trade chart shows that the Eagles would be shorting the Steelers 110 points by only giving them their first and third round picks to move up seven spots. Would that be enough for Colbert? I kind of doubt it, but stranger things have happened.
Being as the Eagles only have six picks as of right now, I kind of doubt they would also want to unload their first and second round picks to move up seven spots, even if it meant they get the Steelers first of two fifth round picks as part of the trade.
This is fun to think about, but once again it shows how predicting trades on draft day is pretty useless. At least we don’t have much longer to wait to find out whether or not the Steelers will be staying put in round one or moving down.
