The True Cost of Trading Up

Many people hold the belief that trading up for a franchise quarterback, or simply trading up for a top 5 pick is just too costly. They say that it isn’t worth mortgaging the future for a quarterback. Personally, I’m of the belief that in a league as competitive and fluctuating as the NFL, there’s nothing more important than finding a franchise quarterback.

So if you’re a team picking in that mediocre 15-20 range, what would you really have to give up to get your guy? I’m going to say it will take two 1^st round picks, one 2^nd round pick and two 3^rd round picks. At first glance, this seems borderline ridiculous to some, but let’s use the Texans past drafts as an example, excluding last year because they had the top pick.

Would it be worth trading Hopkins, Mercilus, Swearinger, Posey and Brooks? Hopkins has the talent to be a franchise wide receiver, but other than him, those are all players that can be replaced relatively easily. Trading those players for an Aaron Rodgers caliber quarterback is a no brainer.

Obviously when you draft a quarterback you don’t know if you’re taking the next Rodgers or the next Ryan Leaf, but Bill O’Brien is paid handsomely to make these decisions, and is a “quarterback guru”, so given his choice of quarterbacks, he should be able to find us the next Rodgers.

So, would you have traded those players for your choice of quarterbacks in this year’s draft, whether it be Winston or Mariota? I would without question. If you never take the risk, you’ll never reap the rewards.