A top-ten draft trade means that the team trading up has a specific player in mind. For the team trading down, the thinking is that there are players they want that they can get later, along with the other stuff that comes from trading down.
For the Raiders, who reportedly are talking about trading down from the third overall pick in the draft, one of their prime targets at a lower spot on the board would be, we’re told, Houston cornerback D.J. Hayden.
Hayden has made a late rise up the draft boards. And not in the classic media-finally-waking-up sense. Once it was clear that Hayden has no lingering health issues following November’s near-death experience involving a fluke rupture of the inferior vena cava, his stock steadily has grown.
At the Scouting Combine, the sense was that he’d definitely go in the first two rounds. In recent days, he has become a sure-fire first-round pick.
One source said that many teams view both his game film and his medical file as better than Alabama cornerback Dee Milliner.
So at a time when plenty (including our final mock draft) have the Browns taking Milliner at six, the outcome could be a Raiders-Browns trade, with the Raiders snagging Hayden in that spot.