draft focus update gbnreport

[cowboyjoe]

April 17: (10:00 AM): Updating the early piece on Washington’s supposed interest in moving up to acquire USC QB Mark Sanchez. The Washington Post is reporting this morning that the Commanders may be targeting Seattle and the #4 as the trade up target. The response reportedly is that the Seahawks would likely seek two first-round picks on the high end. Of note, that was the price the Commanders were willing to pay for QB Jay Cutler before he was traded from Denver to Chicago. The Commanders main rival for a trade up for Sanchez at this time appears to be the New York Jets. The Commanders apparently think they can get Sanchez at #4 because new Kansas City G.M. Scott Pioli, whose Chiefs have the 3rd overall pick, is unlikely to want to make a trade with the Jets, a team with which no one with Patriots’ roots has had the best relationship in recent years… Teams showing the most interest in talking with Arizona about a trade for disgruntled WR Anquan Boldin starts includes Philadelphia and Baltimore, along with the Jets and Giants. The Jets, though, reportedly aren’t prepared to come close to offering what the Crdinals are reportedly asking - start with 1st and 3rd round picks - while the Giants reportedly remain more interested in Cleveland’s Braylon Edwards who likely will come cheaper than Boldin and looks like a better fit with the Giants’ offense which needs a vertical type receiver like Edwards… Call them the dueling draft gurus as ESPNs Mel Kiper, still the dean of draft gurus, and NFL.com’s Mike Mayock, the new kid on the block, have different views on what Detroit should do with the first overall pick at next week’s draft. Kiper still believes that the Lions should take Georgia QB Matthew Stafford with the pick, while Mayock thinks Virginia OT Eugene Monroe should go #1 overall. What Kiper can't believe is that the Lions are still uncertain about which player they will choose with that pick in the wake of comments by Lions‘ head coach Jim Schwartz earlier in the week suggesting that the Lions were "not 100%" set on the top pick. Says Kiper: "if you're going to make a quarterback the top pick in the draft, you better 10 days before the draft know he's your guy. If you don't, you don't take him.” Of course, it has been widely believed that the Lions in fact settled on Stafford long ago and the public hesitancy to anoint him the pick is more to do with putting a little pressure on him in contract negotiations. For the record, Stafford himself is siding with Kiper on this one. In an ESPN interview on Thursday, Stafford reiterated earlier comments that he’d very much like to be taken by the Lions and isn’t daunted by the fact that Detroit is starting over once again. Stafford didn’t go so far as to say he would be the pick though; there had been media reports last week that Stafford was telling friends at Georgia that he’d be signing a $40M contract with the Lions.