People talk all the time about trading down with someone who wants Marcus Mariota or Jameis Winston. But what about teams who like Kevin White, who is doing everything to show the Raiders he is better than Amari Cooper? They all have to be thinking about jumping over Oakland, who is mocked to pick one of those two guys. Yes, there are other great wide receivers, but the Bills traded up for Sammy Watkins when they could have picked Odell Beckham at #8 and the Giants said Watkins was ranked higher than Beckham on their board. So why does everybody think if we trade down, it must be because somebody wants a quarterback? Mariota could drop out of the top 10 easily, but nobody says that should be expected of either White or Cooper. Our best bet to trade down is actually for a team that needs a wide receiver because the Raiders don't need a quarterback either, but they do need an elite pass catcher.

 

The jury is still out on whether White or Cooper is the best wide receiver until West Virginia and Alabama have their pro days. Certainly teams could be content to stay put and see who falls. But anything is possible in the draft, including a team moving up to beat someone else to a specific wide receiver, which happened last year. Why shouldn't we expand our trade-down discussions to include any top five draft prospect, especially guys the Raiders need?

---