Why teams don't trade down anymore

During the 2004 NFL draft Ernie Accorsi unbuckled his belt, pulled his pants down, grabbed his ankles, and took a lighting bolt of the ass. He traded two 1st round picks, a 3rd, and a fifth for Eli Manning. The Chargers turned the two 1sts into Pro Bowlers Philip Rivers and Shawn Merriman, the 3rd into Pro Bowl kicker Nick Kaeding, and traded the fifth for LT Roman Oben. An hour later the Cleveland Browns traded a 1st and a 2nd to move up one spot to draft Kellen Winslow. THe Lions used the picks to draft Roy Williams and Teddy Lehman. The last two years no team in the top 10 has traded down (although the Raiders traded a top 10 pick for Randy Moss).

The two teams in the top 10 most likely to trade down are the Lions and the Redskins. Detroit has drafted so poorly in the 1st round under Matt Millen that whatever move they make will be second guessed to death. But the one move they made that has turned out ok was trading down and taking Roy Williams. Also, neither JaMarcus Russell nor Calvin Johnson, the two players the Raiders are looking at drafting number one, are good fits in Mike Martz's offense. My best guess is they ask for too much to trade down and stand pat and draft Joe Thomas.

The Redskins, on the other hand, has drafted well in the first round, but not drafted much of all outside of the first round. Once again, they have the 6th pick overall and don't pick again until the fifth round. So one might surmise that they'd want to trade down and acquire more picks. But they've reportedly talked to teams about trading up for Calvin Johnson (but they reportedly talked to teams about moving up for Braylon Edwards in 2005). And, of course, they've had talks with the Bears about trading their pick for Lance My-stats-are-clearly-a-product-of-playing-weakside-LB-in-this-defense Briggs. My gut tells me they are able to trade down a few picks when either Adrian Peterson or Brady Quinn slides, or the Bears get wise and trade them Briggs.

My first mock draft is coming soon.