BB: " ...Last year, we went in with the 7th pick and 62nd pick and I felt, at that time, it would be hard to move very far from those two spots, and in fact, we didn’t. I think this year, if you go by the generic trade charts—the charts everyone uses or has access to—if you just do the numbers we could probably trade a combination of our picks in the first round and get up as high as 10. We already have three picks in the second round, so we could pick anywhere from the beginning of the round until the end of the round and then a couple more picks in the third, so I think it’s really important for us to know the value of the board all the way through those first 100 players and be able to know where the opportunities are or aren’t, and how we can make the most of them. Again, we don’t always have flexibility to trade because you need a partner on that, but I’m sure there will be some discussions there and there already have been with teams that see our multiple picks and have interest in acquiring two for one. We just have to see how all of that plays out, but I think it does give us a lot of flexibility and it changes our entry into the draft. It’s a lot different than what it was last year, as I said talking about the number 7 and 62 picks. The process started a few days after the draft last year. I think it’s always interesting to see how it goes from players who have never played football, like the Stephen Neals of the world, to college players who didn’t have too much production, like the Matt Cassels of the world, to players who were three and four-year starters at major programs and all the ones in between—small schools, big schools, guys that played, guys that didn’t play, guys that switched positions, got hurt and had different curves in their careers—so it’s one big evaluation process. I don’t think you can neglect any aspect of it, but at the same time you need to take everything into consideration and try to do the best with what you have, and make the best decisions for your team. All of that process has occurred and now it is a question of trying to finalize how we value the players, which is really important. It’s how we value the players, not how someone else values them and not what some other grade is on them or what round someone else thinks he can go in. What’s important to us is what we think he’ll do for our football team if he’s here. That is really where the emphasis is. As we wind down that evaluation process and get into the draft strategy, potential movement, and comparison between player A and player B at different points in the draft – that’s the last step of the process. It’s always an exciting time when you build your team. This weekend will be an important team-building time for all of us in the National Football League.
Q: Do you sense any reluctance these days of teams to use the picks higher in the first round? It seems at times it is more cost effective to use the lower picks. You have a lot of picks in the second round. You could use just about all of them and not spend what you would have to spend on a top pick?
BB: That is certainly true. I think if you go and look at the Hall of Fame players, you’ll find a lot more in the first round than in the second round. Generally speaking, the higher the pick the better the player. That’s generally speaking the way it is. You’re right. You can get more players for less money. It’s a question of quality. When teams trade up in the draft, they trade up not for a spot, but for a specific player. That’s their judgment on what they think that player will bring to their team. Each case is different. I know there is a general value for trades. We studied that and feel like we know what that market is. Again, it varies in the first round or two. Especially the first round because you’re trading for a specific player. When you trade a sixth and a seventh to move up in the sixth round, I don’t know if anybody knows who you are going to take. If you wanted him that bad, you could have had him 200 players ago. That is not so much a player pick as it is a value pick. You trade up for someone in the first round and you are going for a specific guy. How much that guy is worth to you is how much you are willing to give up. It might be high based on what other people think, but if that’s what you think the player brings to your team, then it’s worth giving it up. Each one of those trades is different. I think when you are involved in those you have to get a feel for… if you are trading up, how much you want the player and if you are trading down, how much you want to draft there versus how much you don’t really care, how motivated the buyer is and how motivated the seller is. Each one of those is unique I don’t think there is any set formula for that. They’re all different.
Q: Do you enter every draft the same way in terms of the general thought process of that or do you specifically want to grab a player here or a position here?
BB: We haven’t been picking in the top 10 very often. When you are picking 23 or picking down in the late teens and 20s, there are so many things that can happen in front of you. It’s hard to predict [that] we are going to do this and we are going to do that. We are waiting to see what 20 other teams are going to do. I think again, the best thing we can do is be prepared. Again, it’s a little unusual because we have a little more flexibility with the three picks in the second round, so we could move up in the first round. But maybe once a player starts dropping into a certain range and you really like that player, then maybe you can consider moving up for him if someone is willing to trade out and that type of thing. Those are the kind of things we need to be prepared for and whether or not it’s worth it to give up one, two, or three picks to move up to take a particular player and give up the opportunity to pick up players in the 40s and 50s. Again, the best example I could give would be that it’s like studying for a final exam. You have a semester’s worth of information and material. Which five questions are going to be on the exam? I don’t know. You have to study all the material. You hope you are on the target for the ones he asks. When it is over, you probably wish you would have studied more on something else and maybe spent a little less time on another area, but that is the way it is in the draft every year. You have to be prepared for everything. In the end you don’t know exactly what it’s going to be. If you are picking [third], it’s a lot easier to evaluate the first three players than if you’re picking 23rd and trying to evaluate the first 30 for that one pick.
Q: Do you believe in the concept of drafting for need?
BB: As I said, I think you draft to improve your team. You sign players to improve your team. That encompasses a lot of things, so what you draft is what you see helping your team, both short term and long term, because you expect those players to be here for more than one year. Whether it is four or five years, whatever your commitment is to those players, that’s really what you are drafting for. In the end, you need everyone. Whether you draft your number one need or number five need, in a year or two those needs may change. Sometimes you take a player that is best suited for you at the time and sometimes that player happens to be one you also need. You do what is best for your team.
Q: Are you noticing more teams calling in?
BB: It’s all just preliminary. We’re just trying to get a sense of what teams are interested in possibly talking, nobody is committing to anything. Like us last year, we were sitting at seven and 62. If we trade 62 to move up from seven then our next pick is 90-something. That probably wasn’t the place we wanted to be in the draft, so it wasn’t realistic for us to move up from seven or to trade 62. I’m not saying that’s impossible, but the chances of that happening didn’t seem pretty good. So, whatever player was at 20, it didn’t really make any difference to us because we weren’t going to be at 20.
