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Two blockbuster trades put the QB argument to rest for the foreseeable future, so BTB's resident truther puts a final wrap on the biggest question of the 2016 draft for the Dallas Cowboys.
I'll try my best not to say "I told you so".
Oh, who am I kidding? this entire article is one big "I told you so".
But seriously, if you didn't understand the truther position a week ago, recent events make it abundantly clear why the Dallas Cowboys absolutely needed to invest this draft capital wisely if a franchise quarterback was available. In fact, if you think, as Bryan Broaddus has opined on many occasions, that Paxton Lynch is "the guy" then you take him at pick four and run away giggling. I am not as high on Lynch as some, and do not think he is the best player available at four, yet I will not complain if he is the pick. While I'm at it, however, everyone is assuming that Goff and Wentz are the first two picks. Broaddus' top 50 reminds us that this may not be the case. Different people see different things.
But what can't be unseen is the capital spent on QB in the last week. It was not long ago that people were nearly getting into shouting matches over the idea of spending the fourth pick on one of these quarterbacks, but now two of them have been purchased for far more than that. The Rams have spent picks 15, 43, 45, and 76 along with next year's first and third. The Titan's GM, Jon Robinson sums it up well:
Being able to acquire six players in the top 76 this year, along with next year when you factor that into it — I am assuming five in the top three rounds — that is 11 players that we can add to this football team that should not only increase our depth, but give us good quality players at all those positions’’
Six of those eleven picks came from the Rams. In other words, the Rams basically traded half a starting unit for their first choice of quarterback.
But the Eagles trade is even more shocking. With the 8th pick in the draft -- itself immense draft capital -- they added pick 77, pick 100, next year's first and a 2018 second, to trade up six spots and get the Rams' sloppy seconds. Consider that for a moment: the 8th pick, two more top 100 picks, and a future first and second for the chance to draft, not your choice, but the second guy, whoever he is. That is the price, not of a franchise quarterback, but of a chance at one. Giving up the fourth pick for that same chance is a bargain by comparison. The idea that we should just wait till Tony Romo shuffles off this mortal coil and trade up to get whoever is good that year is short-sighted and desperate. This year's draft shenanigans show that as clearly as anything. It's the recipe for losing an entire draft for a shot at someone who may be the guy -- or turning into the Cleveland Browns or Washington Commanders.
Which is why you should consider that the Titans have reaped this bounty not once, but twice. That is to say, what they did not give up last year speaks as loudly as what they acquired this year.
According to Pete Schrager, the Titans refused to give up their first-round pick to the Eagles last year, despite the Eagles offering two first-round picks, a second-round pick, and "any" quarterback (including former first-overall pick Sam Bradford) and "any" defensive player on the team (which would include Fletcher Cox). Yet despite that haul, getting a player perceived as a franchise quarterback was more important. And that lesson bears out as the Eagles made a ridiculous trade again and the Titans, now having their guy, benefited from the Rams' desperation at trying to make things work with third-rounder Nick Foles, who was one of the more successful candidates from the "draft a QB later" school, having made a Pro Bowl and a playoff spot one year.
So if the third quarterback in this draft is a franchise guy in your eyes, you take him with pick four. If not, you don't and get effectively the second pick of the draft. It's actually a bit of a win-win situation. But in no way shape or form do you sit content and pass on the opportunity to spend one pick on a franchise quarterback, because odds are you will spend far more than one pick if you don't.
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