Charlie Casserly is a former general manager for the Houston Texans and now spends his time with the guys at CBS on the pregame show. With his background in the NFL, he's in-tune with the draft process and the mindset of a lot of high ranking football executives.
That's why I was intrigued to hear him call the upcoming NFL Draft the best since the famed 1983 draft, which produced a few Hall of Famers.
"First of all," he said moments ago, "I think this is the best first round that I have seen since Dan Marino's draft year of 1983. And the reason is this: There are more first round juniors in this draft than I have ever seen."
He calls Sam Bradford, and not Jimmy Clausen, the best quarterback in the draft.
"Next," he continued, "I think you'll see more trades this year and here's why. The draft is broken up into three days this year. The first round is on Thursday night, Friday night is rounds two and three, and on Saturday rounds four through seven.
"With all that extra time in between the rounds, that will lead to more trades."
This is a great point that I don't think has been addressed enough. Many trades don't get done simply because of a hesitancy to pull the trigger in the 15 minute allotment each team receivers to make a pick.
Just this week, there was a good article from the New York Times describing the decision process of the Jets brass in selecting Shonn Greene in round three. GM Mike Tannenbaum's scouts spent the Saturday-to-Sunday break convincing a hesitant Tannenbaum that Greene was their guy.
Without that extra time, a crucial decision like that likely isn't made.
Casserly also said the Patriots could be in line to be hurt the most from free agency. They have six key players who could be free agents and two of them - TE Ben Watson and DE Jarvis Green - should see some decent offers.
The Chiefs, of course, potentially have needs at both those positions.