This is just a hypothesis, but I asked myself this the other day. Would you trade Micah Parsons or CeeDee Lamb to the Chicago Bears for the No. 1 overall pick? Why or why not? Do you think this is a good question to step back and assess how much you really value that player? – Cameron Hamrick/Mint Hill, North Carolina
Nick Eatman: no thanks. Consider how the NFL is structured with its draft. Pick the bad teams first because they need the most help. Pick the best teams last because they are already good teams in theory. But what you're proposing is trading the key players who made this team a good team and acquiring players who are definitely unproven. I sometimes see the logic that if you're number five to number one, you need to get a quarterback. Look at last year. The Panthers went from No. 9 to No. 1, giving up two first-round picks, two second-round picks, and a quality receiver in DJ Moore. Can you imagine moving up from 24th place? I can not do it. That doesn't happen, and it's not really necessary.
cart: We've been asked several times that many fans are expecting a trade like the Herschel Walker. For those who have been hiding under a rock, that deal dates back to 1989, when the Cowboys sent their star running back to the Vikings for a handful of players and a bunch of draft picks, then traded them for Jerry Jones and Jimmie Johnson used it to rebuild his team. Win the franchise rights to the Super Bowl Champion. It is considered perhaps the biggest trade in NFL history. But when asked at the time why he did that, Johnson basically said that because they were already a bad team with Herschel, they could be a bad team without Herschel and looked to the future. He said he would turn. And therein lies the difference. The Cowboys aren't a bad team today. They're actually a really good team. are they great? Maybe not yet, but I don't think he would trade a player in his prime who he knows is one of the top players in the league for the opportunity to draft the player he wants. As long as the team can handle the financial hardship of all these big contracts, keep the young core players and build the team around them. As the saying goes, an All-Pro bird in the hand is worth far more than an unknown rookie in the bushes.
