Finally got around to seeing Draft Day.
Don't read beyond here if you don't want to see any spoilers.
**********************SPOILERS********************************************
Just from a football perspective, the movie is a little ridiculous. At the end, if you look at it in terms of what was traded, it was a very good trade. He essentially traded three 2nd round picks for the #1 overall pick. That's an unbelievable trade.
But, of course, it wasn't as simple a trade. In the beginning of the movie, he trades their #7 overall and the next two years' 1st round picks for the #1 overall pick. It's a bad trade but a believable trade considering the QB projected to go #1 was supposed to be of Andrew Luck caliber.
The trade did rub some people the wrong way (like the new head coach who wanted to draft a RB at #7 and wasn't happy about mortgaging the future when the Browns already had a very good QB who was fully healed after missing the last 10 games of the previous season due to injury).
So, after making the trade, he decides to start doing some research on this perfect QB who they'll most likely be picking #1. The only things they can find are an allegation that none of his teammates showed up to his 21st birthday, a story that he was the only played who lied twice about getting a $100 bill at the end of a playbook given to all players (most players lied once about the $100, but no one twice), and a few bad throws the play after taking a nasty sack.
The draft comes and he ends up taking a guy #1 overall who would have easily been there at #7 and who might have even fallen to the 2nd round if a team considering him at #15 overall passed on him. So they essentially traded three consecutive 1st round picks for a guy they could have traded back to get.
That's not the stupidest part of the movie. Now, the beloved, perfect QB prospect is suddenly falling because nobody understands why Cleveland would pass on him (surprising that they're giving so much credit to an organization that just traded three 1st round picks for a guy they could have got if they stayed put). So nobody is picking this QB but there doesn't seem to be any logical reason why not.
Then things get stranger. Costner gets desperate and he trades the Browns' next three years of 2nd round picks to the Jaguars to move up to #6 overall (one spot before the team, the Seahawks, that originally traded them the #1 pick). So now he's traded three consecutive 1st and 2nd round picks and only has a guy who didn't need to trade up for.
Now, he takes this newly acquired #6 pick and calls Seattle, who still wants to take the QB they passed on at #1. He tells them he wants his 1st round picks back. Then he tells them to throw in a punt returner too. Seattle agrees. So, Seattle came into the day with the #1 overall pick and walked away with the #6 pick and lost a punt returner.
So, now Cleveland has their 1st round picks back and is on the clock at their original spot of #7. They take the RB that the head coach really wanted.
In the end, everyone is happy, people are calling Costner a genius, and they get two top 7 picks and a veteran punt returner, and they give up three consecutive 2nd round picks to do so.
