This will be the first year I have really paid close attention to the draft. Last year was the first time I can remember even seeing the draft highlights on UK telly so it's something I usually only read about afterwards. This year though I am looking forward to seeing how it all pans out and will of course be glued to patsfans.com to see what fellow Patriot fans are thinking.

My draft rookie question for the day is...how do teams manage the clock ? As far as I understand it teams have only 10 minutes to get their pick to the podium on Day 1. However, what if somebody like Matt Ryan falls to 7...surely the Pats phone would be red hot. 10 minutes to work out a trade with 3 or 4 other teams seems extremely tight. I would assume that the Pats will have every scenario mapped out and if someone like Ryan does fall to 7 they will know exactly what they want. Even so it still seems like a very short period of time to make a potentially franchise changing decision.

PaulC.

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In your scenario, when Ryan falls to #5 or so, an interested team will call the Pats and talk about the parameters of a deal if Ryan should still be there at 7. By the time #7 rolls around, the Pats will have received a couple of offers, so by the five minute mark of their pick, the Pats will most likely have their best offers in hand and can evaluate which serves their purpose better.

This gets more pronounced in later rounds. In the fourth and fifth rounds, a team might talk to a team that's not set to draft for another 15 picks in order to work out a trade.

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Knowing the Patriots, they probably will have voice mail set up on their phones:
* If you're from the JEST, please press star. [At which point, the machine will say, "go #%(#@% yourself." ]
* For inquiries about trading for the #7 pick, press 1.
* For all other inquiries about trading for other picks, press 2.


Seriously, though, there is no rule that says you have to wait until you're on the clock to start fielding offers. I'm sure the Pats' phones will be very busy that Saturday, and they might even have some offers in hand--not deals, mind you, but offers for deals--before the #1 pick is made.

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Come to think of it, didn't the Pats trade out of their third shortly after the Iggles took Stewart Bradley, and before their pick rolled around, or is my memory playing tricks on me?

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Yep, forgot about that. Sounds as if teams probably go to the draft with potential trades already on tap

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You are very close, over the Christmas break I read the book "Next Man Up'. It provides really good inside knowledge of how an NFL team is run. The book gives an insider look to the Ravens organization.
http://www.amazon.com/Next-Man-Up-Be...6625893&sr=1-4

The phones start going like crazy, in a case like that they would likely be listening to offers from various teams and then wait to the last second to decide. As you stated must of the scenarios have already been evaluated, especially at the top end of the draft.

Another funny thing is they will call a prospect and tell them that they have been drafted and to stay on the line. Then a trade offer comes through and they just tell the kid 'things have changed' and then they hang up.

In a very dark ironic way Ozzie Newsome will not draft someone if they cannot be reached by phone. He rationale is that the person could be hurt, high or dead.