As General Managers throughout the NFL continue to engage in the ritual of pre-draft press conferences, which usually entail the men using a lot of words to say not much of anything, it looks like two teams with top five picks want someone to cut the line to take a receiver.
Earlier this week, Browns G.M. Ray Farmer displayed all the subtlety of Flounder in Animal House while discussing the possibility of getting receiver Sammy Watkins at No. 4.
“It would be big, big ginormous [to get him],” Farmer said of Watkins (pictured). “He’s a good football player. He has really good hands, can run all the routes and can be productive. Saddle him on the opposite side of Josh Gordon -- wow!”
On Thursday, Raiders G.M. Reggie McKenzie said that he won’t pass on a “great” receiver at No. 5 for a “good” one later in the draft.
Unless both men are content to broadcast their true intentions to the world, it’s possible that they’re hoping to goad a team like the Lions at No. 10 or the Buccaneers at No. 7 to trade up for Watkins or Mike Evans of Texas A&M, which would push farther down the stack a player that the Browns or the Raiders covet.
With two extra weeks to discuss and debate and dissect, there’s also a chance that the guys like Farmer and McKenzie have opted for next-level Jedi mind tricks, saying what they believe under the assumption that no one will actually believe it. Still, the more likely explanation is that they both want something other than a receiver, and that they hope someone in front of them takes someone at a position they aren’t targeting.