With the Rams almost certain to trade the second overall pick in the NFL draft to some team that wants Robert Griffin III, the big question in St. Louis is which team that will be.
The Rams have already begun talking to other teams about a potential trade, and according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Redskins are viewed as the frontrunners to be the Rams’ trading partners.
However, there appears to be a fairly large sticking point: According to the report, the Redskins don’t want to include their second-round pick this year in moving up from No. 6 to No. 2, and the Rams want that pick to be a part of it. The Redskins are willing to include their 2013 first-round pick in the trade, but the Rams apparently want more than that.
The old draft trade chart suggests that the Redskins would need to trade more than just their first-round pick and their second-round pick to move up to the No. 2 overall pick. But you can probably throw the draft trade chart out the window on this one. The Rams are going to trade the pick not for what is considered a fair price according to the chart, but for whatever is the best deal they can get. And assuming there’s more than one team enamored with Griffin, the Rams can likely get at least one team to overpay.
At the moment that team doesn’t appear likely to be the Browns, however: They’re reportedly unwilling to give up both of their first-round picks (No. 4 and No. 22) to move up two spots and grab Griffin.
The Rams are likely looking for something along the lines of what the Giants gave the Chargers in the Eli Manning-Philip Rivers trade in 2004. That year the Giants got Manning (the No. 1 overall pick) in exchange for Rivers (the No. 4 overall pick), plus the Giants’ third-round pick that year and their first- and fifth-round picks the following year.
So if the Redskins are the team moving up, they might be able to keep this year’s second overall pick. But they’d probably have to give up this year’s first and third, and next year’s first and fifth.