Patriots coach Bill Belichick said every team uses the same chart when determining what constitutes a fair trade of draft picks. Steelers General Manager Kevin Colbert does not agree.
Colbert said he simply evaluates each possible trade for what he thinks is reasonable given how much the Steelers want the top player on the board when they’re on the clock.
“People talk about the charts, but we don’t use a chart. We know other teams will use a chart, and we know that when we call them they’ll say, well that doesn’t match our chart value. That’s fine. They can do that, but in our minds we have to spend what we want to spend if we want a certain player. And we have to explain, if a team is trying to trade up to us, that we don’t follow a chart. We know what they’re saying and that’s up to them, but we make up our own values.”
Colbert said he’s open to trading either up or down on Thursday, and the Steelers have already talked to some teams, although those talks haven’t progressed much.
“Our scouts, the pro guys, will start making their calls starting today to visit with teams,” he said. “We talk about it informally throughout the spring, but you never really get firm answers because we don’t know what we would be trading up for and teams don’t know what they’d be trading away from. Until you really get closer – you might have some idea that this team is interested in coming up and this team is interested in going down – until you actually get on the clock, those things will not happen in any great detail.”
The Steelers have the 20th overall pick and have a pick in each round, including two third-round picks and three sixth-round picks.