Today is the start of this year’s National Football League Draft, and that is one thing that D-Day stands for. However, the D word that I was referring to is deception.
Deception runs rampant in the media in the hours leading up to the draft, as teams send out disinformation to throw other teams off of what they are doing. At this point teams are lying so much that they make President Nixon during Watergate look like a boy scout.
Take, for instance, the team that I live near… the Buffalo Bills.
First, it was reported on April 19th by NFL Network’s Jason La Canfora that the Bills are interested in moving down.
Then on Tuesday evening it was reported by WGR 550’s Joe Buscaglia that the Bills were high on Alabama safety Mark Barron. That very night CBS’s Charie Casserly also reported that the Bills were high on Texas A&M quarterback Ryan Tannehill.
Well if you think that is the end of the reports well you would be wrong. Wednesday night Pro Football Talk reported that the Bills are interested in moving up to get USC tackle Matt Kalil.
So, what is the correct report? Well here is a quote from Bills general manager Buddy Nix on all the reports out there from the Bills Draft Luncheon April 18th.
“I will just tell you this, I tell you this every time and you don’t listen and you don’t believe me, but I’m going to tell you any way,” Nix said. “Don’t get pinned down by connecting the dots. It’s fun, I enjoy reading it but it’s fantasy football. It has nothing to do with what we might do. I don’t care how many draftniks think that that’s where we’re going and that’s the best pick for us, if that’s not the guy we’ve got graded there, we won’t take him. Don’t get yourself in a spot where it sounds like you know and then it doesn’t work out that way.”
Nix in a recent interview did admit that they are always looking down to get more picks. He also said that he has never traded up before. Nix has been associated with trade downs. The biggest of which was in 2001 where the Chargers held the first overall pick that year and traded down with the Atlanta Falcons in exchange for the fifth overall pick, the Falcons third round pick, a second round pick in 2002 and wide receiver Tim Dwight.
So, what is Nix going to do? Sure beats me there are too many variables like who gets selected above them, who falls, and other trades around them. As Nix suggested, we will all just have to wait and find out when the pick is read at the podium.
