Trading up or down during the draft can mean a lot of different things.  Trading up could mean that through your scouting and evaluation, you've identified an ideal candidate that you believe others will covet as much as you and because you feel the candidate is so good and such a lock to be a productive player you are willing to give up additional picks to secure him.  It could also mean that you feel you are one player away as is the concensus about how the Jaguars felt when they traded up to get Harvey.  Trading up, especially in the 1st or 2nd round, risks the future fortunes of the franchise for the "right now".

 

Trading down on the other hand could mean that you've identified multiple ideal candidates that you would be equally happy to acquire and that because you have no real preference of which one it is, you'd rather accumulate more picks to have more opportunities to acquire good players in the later rounds or future drafts.  It could also mean that your scouting and evaluations haven't clearly identified any stand out candidates and that because you have no idea who to take you'd rather just get the additional picks until you figure it out with whoever is left when it's your turn to pick again.  Very few GMs, if any, who have identified the clear cut best player on the board would risk trading back even just a few spots with the thoughts of getting him later.  

 

There are positives and negatives to be gleaned from both trading up and trading down.  The bottom line is your scouting department better be good and your GM better make good decisions based on that scouting info.  I love the confidence in your evaluations that trading up exudes but not the effects of getting it wrong as we have endured since the Harvey trade up.  I love the extra picks that results from trading down, but what does it say about your scouting department or GM?  Were they not able to identify a clear cut best player at your original pick and if they did is your GM really risking not getting him by trading back?  If a draft day trade takes place that moves Cleveland up to 3 and the Jags take picks 12 and 19, has our scouting department really done enough to identify the best players in that range or were they working to identify top 5 talent with most of their time?

 

Whatever it is, get it right Dave.

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