Quote:Every year there seems to be a large percentage of fans who want nothing more than to trade down out of our draft pick in the 1st round and amass a bunch of future picks.  Think the Redskins and Rams trade for RG3.

 

I believe this team does not need to trade down and should not trade down, except for the unlikely scenario that someone comes up with a ridiculous offer.

 

My premise is this:  Our roster is stacked with young, talented, and INEXPERIENCED players.  

 

Bortles, Denard, Storm, Lee, ARob, Joeckel, Bowanko, Linder, Pasztor  just on offense.

 

More players like:  Chris Smith, Telvin Smith, Branch, Gratz, Evans, Cyprien, DMac, Colvin.

 

 

That's a lot of young players that have been getting a lot of playing time.  In most cases, trade-downs would result in adding more of those types of players.  Young, inexperienced, and talented.  May or may not develop.  The chance of finding a superstar out of those players listed is small, although many would agree caldwell has done a good job of drafting.

 

 

I think this team needs to add a bonafide superstar to the roster.  A Fred Taylor.  Jimmy Smith.  Mojo.  Marcus Stroud.   Difference makers, not extra depth.  We have enough depth on this team right now.  

 

I believe that at #3, if you believe in your scouts and GM and coaching staff, you may be getting the best non-QB in the entire draft.  Why let that potential difference maker go to someone else?  

 

Furthermore, Caldwell himself has said that we have 22 starters now and no true "needs."  We don't need to bring in another 10 rookies.  In fact, if we do - I bet you many wouldn't even make the team.  The roster is full of young players with potential to improve.  

 

It would be different if we had 8 holes on this team and we just need as many players as possible.  That is not the case anymore  That was the case in 2013 and 2014.  

 

Do you really want to have another 10 rookies playing next year?  Not me.  Been there, done that.  We need to let our young core develop and supplement them by adding a monster at #3.  

 

 

 

It's completely different if you have a veteran team with a veteran QB and are set at multiple important positions.  You may want to get younger then..... then it makes sense to add a bunch of young players and see which rise to the top.  We don't have that luxury.  We are still looking for superstars.  Without them, you will never be more than 6-10.  No offense to the guys listed above, but none are superstars or true "difference makers."  At least not yet.  We need to draft that difference maker #3.

 

In a nutshell:  Trading down doesn't directly address our biggest need.  Superstar talent.  Trading down will get you a younger roster, which actually is one of the reasons we've been so bad in the last two years.  It just doesn't make any sense.  

You raise valid arguments against trading down.

 

There are counterpoints that bear consideration, however.

 

You argue against trading down as if it is impossible to do so and acquire superstar level talent.

 

I think it is quite possible to trade down and add superstar caliber talent.

 

2 time Super Bowl winning head coach Jimmy Johnson, formerly of Dallas and Miami, was a staunch advocate of trading down, indicating it gave you more bites out of the apple that is the pool of talent in any draft class.  Most of his drafts were characterized by trades down that netted players like Dixon Edwards, Darren Woodson, Erik Williams and Darren Smith for the Cowboys, and guys like Jason Taylor and Zack Thomas for the Dolphins.  Woodson, Williams, Taylor and Thomas all fall into the Superstar category, and players of equivalent ability would be more than welcome here in Jacksonville.  He successfully added young talented players to a nucleus of young relatively inexperienced and talented players to build a Super Bowl team. 

 

Similarly, one of the best drafts in NFL history was the 1986 San Francisco 49ers draft, conducted by the late Hall of Fame and 3 time Super Bowl winning coach Bill Walsh.  That draft featured numerous trades down for a playoff team the year before.  That draft produced an insane number of starters and Pro bowlers, including Charles Haley, Tom Rathman, Tim McKyer and Steve Wallace.  Here is a link that explains how Walsh did it.

 

http://www.si.com/vault/1990/04/23/12187...asterpiece

 

Of course, strategies like that only help if you have a guy who can identify that ostensibly lower level talent as potential starting level talent like Walsh and Johnson.

 

Might we have a guy like that in Caldwell?  You see what he found in the 3rd 4th and 5th rounds last year, to say nothing of Bowanko in the 6th.  Maybe he can, maybe not.  It might be worth trading back to see if he can replicate that.

 

There is also the possibility the trade back can result in an experienced upgrade at a position of need for the Jaguars. 

 

The Saints have had a firesale of their roster because of cap concerns, and they are still talking about trading players away.  What's to stop them from throwing in FS Jairus Byrd in any trade up with us?  Would Byrd not help this team?

 

Of course there's always the danger of trading out of range of a superstar caliber player.  Jimmy Johnson did that very thing in the 1998 draft, trading down the night before the draft, missing out on a guy named Randy Moss.

 

But I think Caldwell performed well enough in last year's draft to get some slack if he wants to trade back this year and accumulate picks again.

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