This is exactly how I imagine it, actually. You're at #27 f'rinstance (not real-life from this draft, just in general,) and you know you need to get to #24 because your guy is going to go... and you know that BB is one way to do it... slowly your options run out and there he is on the phone, and you can't not do it, even though it never turns out win-win... He's got a guy at 27, and he'll get him. You'll get your guy... but he'll take your 4th or something, package that with something, get a third, package those and get a 2 in the next year... whatever. You just KNOW that when Bill's between what you really covet and what he can take or leave - because he's playing from ahead, as the article puts it - he'll make out for sure, counting the picks... and you're on the hook for MAKING that trade-up worth it.
It's their style, also as the article puts it. A realistic assessment of any draft is that they're crap shoots. Only a very few teams realistically beat the crap-shoot model with any consistency, and it's REALLY hard to do after the first 10-15 in any draft. So why NOT work w/numbers?
I think they've just come to the conclusion that the best average ROI is in that approach.