But grading a draft now is like a quiz leading up to a mid-term exam. They say year three is when you really find out what the grade is. And in the Rams case (or any other team who trades away picks prior to the draft), the players acquired with those picks aren't included in the draft grade even though they should be. We got Cooks, Fowler, Ramsey and Von Miller with draft picks and they were all first round picks who had already proven their worth on the field but weren't a part of the Rams draft grade (by the 'experts'). All four of them played in 1 of the 2 Superbowls we got to.
In the case of Fiske, the Rams got #39 (510 pts) gave up #52 (380 pts), #155 (29 pts) for a subtotal of 409 pts as well as a 2025 2nd round pick, which could be anywhere from #33 (580 pts) to #64 (270 pts). And they say future picks are valued a round lower so if that's true, then that 2nd rounder had a current value 265 to 216. That sounds a little more reasonable. Did they overpay? According to the chart, yes. But according to the chart Penix was worth 1400 points and Atlanta probably won't begin to get their return on that for 3 or 4 years. We'll have to wait and see how Fiske works out. Might be he was a steal. Might be it was a bad move.
But it's certainly worthy of discussion.
I have no issue with discussion about the merits of a trade; we're all passionate about football.
But let's be honest, some posters were ripping Snead for the Fiske trade and stating that he is an idiot who gets exploited by other GM's who can't wait to rip him off in trade deals. Posters are basing their opinion of Snead's moves based upon trade value charts that certain posters take to be the gospel truth.
How many of these rival GM's who have supposedly scammed Snead in these trades have a Super Bowl on their resume?
After all, winning a Super Bowl is the point of making trades isn't it?
Many of these same posters ripped Snead for not getting much in return for trading Jalen Ramsey to Miami last year.
This was mindless of the fact that whether you're selling a car or trading a football player, the value of the item that you're selling is only what buyers are prepared to pay.
Since Ramsey's play had tailed off significantly as he aged, no team was prepared to pay more for his services, and based upon his play last season, Miami certainly must regret having traded for Ramsey.
By questioning the validity and the relevance of draft value charts and draft grades, some posters seem to think that I'm somehow raining on the football talk parade.
That's not my intention, but I'm not going to stay silent when people are stridently trashing a GM's work based upon flawed tools such as trade value charts and draft "grades".