The poor math skills of some posters are also amazing. People say: "We never make those first-round picks." Actually we do, typically, make at least one first-round pick, whether it's our own or one we traded into the future for. This relentless trading back and banking of future first-round picks accomplishes two things:
1) It automatically increases your draft position every year, since if you have two picks every year, one is always going to be higher and you can always pick at the higher slot. Let's say the Pats pick at 28 again next year and New Orleans finishes 24th again. Those four slots are a free jump up in the first-round. Sometimes the jump is dramatic, like the San Francisco pick that turned into Mayo, and sometimes it's modest, like the Baltimore pick that turned into Wilfork. We picked at 17 this year instead of 28. This trading back technique is actually predicated on the assumption that the team will, in fact, be making first-round picks every year. It just works best when you choose the higher pick and cash the other one in.
2) As the other poster pointed out, you're now getting a free second-rounder every year. You DO make one first-round choice, bank the other, and then choose twice in the second every year. If you do this every year for five years, even assuming zero first-rounders the first time (because you make the one initial sacrifice of a trade-back), you end up with four first-round picks and ten second-rounders. That's as opposed to five first-rounders and five second-rounders if you stand pat, and five first-rounders and FOUR second-rounders if you do what New Orleans did, and trade up. So just to add it up:
5 YEAR HAUL
Patriot method: 4 first-round picks + 10 second-round picks = 14 players.
No-trade method: 5 first-rounders and 5 second-rounders = 10 players.
Trade-up method: 5 first-rounders and 4 second-rounders = 9 players.
This stuff really isn't that hard.
