You Make The First Pick
Inspired by a question in today’s PG+ chat, the question is this. Imagine you are in the Steelers war room during the upcoming draft. Pick #17 rolls around and many of your top prospects are still on the board. You have only a few minutes to make your decision. Which of the following options do you take?
- draft Jarvis Jones, OLB, Georgia
- draft Kenny Vaccaro, S, Texas
- draft Cordarrelle Patterson, WR, Tennessee
- draft Justin Hunter, WR, Tennessee
- draft Tyler Eifert, TE, Notre Dame
- draft Eddie Lacy, RB, Alabama
- trade down six spots for a 2nd round and 7th round pick
Bonus question: at pick 12, Tavon Austin, WR, WVU, is still available. You have reason to believe the Panthers will draft him at pick 14. Tampa Bay offers to trade pick 13 in exchange for your first, third, and 7th round picks plus a conditional pick from next year. Do you take the deal and draft Austin?
I would take Eifert and not look back. If for some reason he is not available, I’d take my chances with the trade down option.
Bonus question: no.
i would trade down. if that doesn’t pan out I would pick up Vacarro or Jones. and get Wr in the 2nd, like K. Allen or Terrence Williams Baylor. I would like to have seen more from Patterson. I just don’t see him as a Fitzgerald, Julio Jones kind of guy to take that risk with a pick that high. I think you could get Kelce from Cin. in the 3rd how is supposed to be a better blocker than Eifert.
Still sticking with a safety or even corner for first round. Also still sticking with 7-9.As for trading down I think its a good idea and that’s why it WONT happen. This thin upper class will have others wanting to trade down also.
Tough choice. The trade down is to far, there’s no way I’d trade up for Austin. It’s a toss up between Eifert and Jones, so I’ll flip a coin…..Jones it is!!!
Whoops I miss read it!!! I thought it was a trade out of the first. I would trade down and try to get Eifert there.
Well, looking at the draft pick value chart, you might be able to get a 3 if you traded back to 23 (190 points), but wouldn’t get a 2. http://walterfootball.com/draftchart.php
The price to trade up and the gain from trading back might not be that great this year, unless there is a player some team really covets. There would seem to be more teams interested in trading back than teams interested in trading up. It’s a buyers’ market.
Austin, Jones, Eifert or Vaccaro at 17, otherwise trade back.
Bonus question: Move up 4 spots for your 3rd, 7th plus another pick next year? NFW. On the other hand, if the price were more reasonable like say only a 3rd this year, I would have to consider it.
It’s cheating to say “Austin, Jones, Eifert or Vaccaro at 17”. The point is to pick one, not four. Or, did you mean you’d choose in that order?
I mean, in that order of preference, if one of those were available at 17, they would be acceptable picks.
I think that Austin will have a big impact for some team out of the slot and will be Offensive Rookie of the Year. I would like to get a tall, fast, rangy WR who can play the outside, and has a good long term upside, even more. Unfortunately AJ Green is not in the draft this year and Patterson and Allen do not compare all that favorably to him either.
Having ES back in the fold makes a decision to trade up to get Austin more difficult though.
All things considered, if the team traded back and took Arthur Jones or Kennan Allen late in the 1st, I would be satisfied.
I think if C Patterson is on the board, Minn will be tempted to trade pick 1-23 (They also have 1-25), but the equal value would be to get 1-23, 3-83 and 6-189 not their 1-25, 2-52 and 7- 213, but if they are willing the Steelers should jump on it quickly…and with pick 1-23 or 1-25, there is a good chance Eifert is there and if so I would take him.
Firstly, trading down to 23 won’t get you more than a 3rd round pick but that would be ok and I would do that as there won’t be a lot of difference between the player chosen at 17 and the one chosen at 23 and then we get an extra player with the extra 3rd round pick.
If Minnesota (the team picking at 23) were so incredibly stupid enough to offer us pick 23 plus a 2nd and 7th rounder for our pick 17 I would bite half their arm off, never mind their hand. I would have the Steelers representative in NY up at the podium to make the trade (if that is necessary) before the Commish had left the stage from the previous pick.
No way would I trade up in this draft to 13 unless it was for one of the top 3 OTs. Certainly not for Tavon Austin.
According to Walter’s draft pick values, 1-17 has a value of 950 points. 1-23 (760 points) 3-83 (175) and 6-189 (16)…so that it is just about an even value trade. Still would take Eifert at 23 or 25, but not at 17.
I just saw atlanta (1-30) may be looking to move up…not sure we want to move that far down, but it would be a bonanza in picks, again according to Walter’s, we would get 1-30 (620), 2-60 (300), 5-163 (26) and 7-236 (2) and Atlanta has traded before to get their man (julio Jones).
I completely agree with Steeltyke. All other considerations aside, I would take Eifert.
Thanks for the input Ed… er James. But FYI your post went into moderation, presumably because you changed your email address.