NFL
By: Brandon Blake
A little more than a week after the Tennessee Titans and the Los Angeles Rams made blockbuster trade that gave the Rams the number one overall pick, the Cleveland Browns and the Philadelphia Eagles made a similar deal this week.
The Browns, who were rumored to wanting to trade out of the number two pick, found a team willing to move up in the draft in the Philadelphia Eagles. The Browns traded the number two overall pick along with a 2017 fourth round pick to the Eagles in exchange for Philadelphia’s first round pick (eight overall), a third round pick and a fourth round pick in 2016 and a 2017 first round pick and a 2018 second round pick.
The Eagles were looking to move up in the draft in order to obtain a quarterback and with the trade are in a position to possibly selecting either Cal’s Jared Goff or North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz. Like the Rams, the Eagles did give up a lot to acquire the number two pick but unlike the Rams, the move does not make any sense to me. The Eagles this off-season signed Chase Daniel and re-signed Sam Bradford to a two-year, $35 million deal with $22 million dollars guaranteed. To me, if the Eagles already have Daniel and signed Bradford to a lot of guaranteed money, why trade up and give up so much to draft a quarterback who may or may not be NFL ready should Bradford or Daniel are ineffective or injured.
I was of the mindset that with Cleveland at number two, that they would take a quarterback but given that they signed Robert Griffin III, it seemed less likely that the Browns would take a quarterback at number two and would trade out of that spot if they found a team willing to move up. And given the recent history of the Browns and drafting quarterbacks, maybe it is wise for the Browns to not draft a quarterback and restock their roster with the draft picks they have now acquired from Philadelphia. Now with the Browns now picking eighth, they could go and get a skill player like a Laquon Treadwell, or a Josh Doctson or Ezekiel Elliot. Whatever the Browns do with those draft picks, much like the Titans, the key is making the right picks or otherwise it will be all for naught.
