No, this is not a statistics class. Hopefully I didn't give anyone heart failure or the cold sweats with memories of an 8:00am Statistics 1 class. But, a Matt Cassel trade could open up a WORLD of possibilities during the draft. QB talent is rare and hitting the lottery on day one with a rookie QB is even rarer or more rare or...whatever. Anyway, it's a turkey shoot, at best. So, just hear me out on this one. The Detroit Lions have 2 picks in the first round and 5 picks in the first 3 rounds. SBNation's very own Mocking The Draft has Detroit picking Georgia QB, Matt Stafford, with their first round #1 pick. Here's where things approach the realm of, "Hey man, you're off your rocker!! What's in that coffee?!?" Why would the Lions go with a college QB and not a guy who has NFL experience and brought his team to the brink of a playoff berth? A guy like, I don't know, Matt Cassel? Detroit, simply hand Bill Belichick your #1 spot and we'd be happy to trade Matty to you. You can thank us later.
Let's say venus aligns with mars, pigs really do fly, and hell freezes over, OK? What would you, Patriots fan, do with a #1 draft pick? Would you pick a top safety like Missouri's William Moore or a corner like Ohio State's Malcolm Jenkins? How about an OLB/ILB like USC's Brian Cushing? I have lots of love for Tedy, mind you, but he's pushing 36 and it wouldn't hurt to get a young guy under the mentorship of Bruschi as well as some young meat to stand next to Jerod Mayo.
Or, maybe we go for a top WR like Texas Tech's Michael Crabtree. Why, on earth, would we need another WR? Jabar Gaffney's a free agent which leaves the #3 spot wide open for a high performing, young guy. Wes Welker is my man, but he's an underneath, slot guy and Moss is signed through 2010. What better way to groom Randy's replacement than to pick up A guy like Crabtree and give Moss two full seasons to work with him? Money is less of an issue at this point as Cassel's just been traded, freeing up $14.6 million (well, not traded for real, but only in this scenario - WORK WITH ME PEOPLE!!).
The Monkey Wrench in this whole scenario? Belichick absolutely HATES paying big bucks for players. He loves finding underrated and/or undrafted rookies, discarded vets, and jettisoned players who don't fit their current system. Sometimes the experiment fails (Deltha O'Neal comes to mind), but many times he's dead nuts right (Moss and Welker anyone?).
Oh what a tangled web we weave. This is gonna be fun. Cassel gets traded to the Lions for their #1 pick...what would you do?