This is where we differ in the discussion.
@BonifayRam and I are speaking about making picks, by evaluating college players. We are not talking about trading picks for proven NFL talent. Yes, that is a part of a team building process, but it’s not hard for Snead to identify proven talent that’s played for several years.
Snead has made some real blunders in past drafts. His trading back rarely ends up being worth it. His habit of picking raw athletic freaks hasn’t worked out. With Edwards precipitous fall I wouldn’t consider his picking injured players a success either.
Snead trades backwards, skipping good players to pick mediocre or less talent.
Now, if you are happy with getting one good year out of a player and then average or below average years, like Allen and Edwards, and Rapp, then sure. I’d rather get a few more keepers in the draft. Did they win a Super Bowl? Yes, but mostly because of the trades they made. A monkey could see that Ramsey and Stafford were top notch talent. Add in the Kupp, AD, Gaines and Floyd and they have a core, surrounded by a lot of average or less talent that they don’t resign.
They’ve had some nice UDFA signings. I find it to be ironic that when graded in a scale they have more success doing that than they do picking 6th rounders.
For this team to make a quick turnaround, they will need a great draft, which is something Snead has never accomplished and seems even further from since Holmes went to Detroit. If they rebuild they may as well trade away AD, Kupp and Stafford because the holes created by releasing/trading these star players aren’t all likely to be adequately filled in the 2023 draft. If the past is an indication, then it’s not likely the team will be seriously competitive for the next several years.