It's weird to me that a lot of people view trading a 1st rounder to get AD as basically throwing away a 1st rounder.
For me it is like this: What if Dallas would have traded last year's #1 pick for AP or someone like him. You could say the same thing then that you're arguing now. However, what we know now is that Dallas would have been missing out on a decade long, all-pro talent at guard that turned their OL into the best in the league last year. They also would have missed out on having that all-pro talent at a bargain basement price for 5 out of those 10 seasons.
So, in this scenario, you could have had AP for a couple/three years paying him at the very top of his position group... and three years would be feeling like you got him longer than you figured.
Or
You could have a 23 year old all-pro and pay him at the very bottom of his position group for 5 years, and then you would have the inside track to resign him to his second contract for 8 or so more years, like Dallas did with Tyron Smith.
When GM's and coaches (and fans) think about their first round pick, they think about that scenario I wrote above.
In 2010 (Dez), 2011 (Tyron Smith), 2013 (Travis Frederick), and 2014 (Zack Martin) the Cowboys would have been royally screwing themselves by trading any one of those picks for a 30 year old vet RB who was expensive as all hell, and only had 2 or 3 years left to even play the game at an acceptable level. It would be insanity to want to do that.
And that isn't even bringing up the fact that RB is probably the easiest position to fill in all of football.
If things go the way we expect them to, we will be getting the 30-32 pick in the draft. If I could give that up to increase the odds of this team winning a Super Bowl in the next three years, I do that. That is not a waste of a 30-32 pick. I'd actually say that was a smart use of it.
One, it is bad mojo to sit here in may and say we should be picking 30-32.
Second, Dallas just used the 31st pick in the draft a couple of years ago and all they did was get the best center in pro football locked up for 5 years at a cheap price and will surely re-sign him to a second contract that will keep him in Dallas for his entire career.
If the Vikings offered Dallas AP and next year's first round pick for Frederick, I would straight up laugh in their face... and I might would fly to Minnesota, find their team headquarters and slap someone.
The whole idea of trading a first round pick to the Vikes for AP is nuts for any team, IMO. For a team that has been knocking high picks out of the park for the last half decade... it is sheer lunacy.
