A Draft Day Trade

I suppose that anything is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. With that in mind, I don't see how anyone can criticize an NFL team for spending too much to move up for a particular player. If a team values a particular football player, if a team decides that they can't succeed without that particular football, is any price too high to get that football player? It's up to the team to decide. The only way that a team regrets making a trade is if the player fails miserably in becoming the player that the team values so greatly. No one knows that outcome right after the draft. It's the media and many of the fans that do the judging anyway and they rarely know enough to make an accurate judgement.

Early in the 2013 NFL Draft, the Oakland Raiders traded the third pick to the Miami Dolphins. In return for moving back nine spots, the Raiders received the Dolphins first and second round picks. The Raiders entered the draft with Houston cornerback D.J. Hayden as their target. They knew that they could select him later in the draft so they were looking to trade down. It sounds like they would have taken him with the third pick if they couldn't find a trade partner. The Raiders were also very low on draft picks in general. Top picks, in particular. They weren't too picky about the number of picks but they wanted/needed a second. They got their player and their pick. I really thought that the Dolphins gave up very little to move up nine spots. Despite what I thought of the trade, the Raiders got what they wanted. When I finally realized that no one was forcing the Raiders to make this trade I realized that maybe the team got what they wanted from the Dolphins.

Before that first draft night could end the Minnesota Vikings jumped into the 29th spot that was originally held by the New England Patriots. Seeing as the Vikings had already made two first round selection, it was pretty exciting. Obviously, they were getting greedy for top draft talent. The Vikings selected Tennessee receiver Cordarrelle Patterson with the pick. To acquire the Patriots 29th pick, the Vikings sent their second, third, fourth, and seventh round picks to the Patriots. Some people were screaming that the Vikings spent too much. It costs quite a bit to move up nearly 3/4 of a round but people still cried that the price was too high. It was high but obviously the Vikings were willing to spend it. They had an extra fourth round pick and couple extra sevenths. That gave them the extra cash to make it easier to say "yes." Since, the Vikings flipped their second for the Patriots first, the exchange really cost the Vikings a third out of their pocket. It doesn't really matter how you look at the trade. What does matter is that the Vikings were willing to pay the price for the opportunity to draft Patterson.

Everything costs something. If you want something bad enough, you pay the price. None of the draft day trades really mean a thing once the football games start counting. It doesn't matter where players were drafted or how they were acquired. They're all football players then.