The Patriots don’t have to wait long to find their next franchise QB. While Jarrett Stidham is still untested and potentially a good NFL QB, the Pats won’t stand by and not make a splashy move to get a top QB.
In this proposed trade the Chargers seem content to trade back and wait. They go into full rebuild mode and start the talks of ‘tanking for Trevor’ for next season. In this trade, the Pats get No. 6 overall in exchange for No. 23 overall, two 3rd round picks, and former Alabama football RB Damien Harris.
At No. 7 the Panthers have a couple of choices. They just lost All-World LB Luke Kuechly to early retirement and they have a glaring need at DT. Do they take Simmons or Auburn’s Derrick Brown?
To me it is a no-brainer that you take Simmons as a replacement for Kuechly. You must have an alpha leading your defense in the middle and Simmons is that guy. Given the lack of depth at the LB spot in this year’s draft coupled with the fact that there are several options at DT it just makes sense to take Simmons who had a very impressive Combine.
The Cardinals started to show vast improvement late last season and the offseason addition of Deandre Hopkins is huge for them. Before that trade I would have had the Cardinals taking a WR here, but now they need a franchise LT to protect Kyler Murray.
You could make an argument for about four different guys here, but I have the Cardinals taking the guy who had the most impressive Combine of the group, Tristan Wirfs.
The Jags are another team with a lot of needs and a lot of picks just like the Dolphins. The difference is the Jags have more needs on defense where the Dolphins have more needs on offense. This is the biggest position of need for the Jags and the best player available. No-brainer pick again here.
There are recent talks of Cleveland trying to trade back out of this spot, but I don’t think there is any reason for it. They, like Arizona, need an OT to protect their young QB. With three solid choices here I don’t know why you move back if you’re Cleveland (see pick #1 above for why they might though). If a trade does happen, look for the Broncos to be the one to move here.