Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports
From Thursday’s early hours straight through the end of the 2013 NFL Draft‘s first round, we wade through a completely unpredictable period of time except for two guarantees: There will be 32 selections, many of which will be made by teams aiming to deceive in the lead-up.
Whether it’s a “smoke screen”, “decoy”, “flash bang”, whatever you want to call it, teams will use any information — and misinformation — they can to get an edge. Whether the New York Jets are currently doing this to the Buffalo Bills is a question that may well go unanswered, but it’s all part of the poker faces these teams will try to hold into Thursday night, or until they trade, whichever comes first.
I’m not saying whether the source below here is just playing the game or giving straight info — or being tricked by someone else into giving misleading info, or was incepted on a flight two evenings ago —but it’s another element in the dizzying array of draft news coming out this week.
“The Jets control the wheelhouse on Day 1, and a guy they love at the quarterback position (is quarterback Ryan Nassib),” said ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio said. “I’m told new offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg loves Nassib, his quick decision-making and ability to run the West Coast offense.”
However, Peter King and Albert Breer have both reported on the Bills being more fond of Matt Barkley. So either the Jets truly want Nassib and the Bills ditto with Barkley, or maybe the Jets know Buffalo wants Nassib and are feigning interest to force a Buffalo trade-up in early round two, where the Jets are at No. 8 and Bills at No. 10….Or a trade up to the Jets’ No. 13 pick?….Or some crazy third level of misdirection.
MockDraftable.com’s trade pick calculator equates the value of trading up from 42nd overall to 13th overall as needing an extra 27th overall to be thrown included, meaning Buffalo would need to probably throw in a 2014 first-rounder and change. Swapping the Bills’ 42nd for the Jets’ 40th would likely require at least a fifth-rounder. The Bills could also just take Nassib at No. 8, but I imagine they’d rather trade up from 42 to snag him somewhere lower than top 10.
No better time than the day of the draft to have fun with draft-pick trade calculators! Click here for similar articles and the latest in my Rant Sports NFL archive.
Thomas Emerick is a Senior Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @ThomasEmerick, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google
