Bucs’ Trade Talks

Ever vigilant, Pic has uncovered more dirt on the Bucs and their ongoing trade talks with the Oakland Raiders:

Yahoo Sports has the Bucs-Raider trade rumor going strong. From: Yahoo Sports:

Three weeks ago, Tampa Bay general manager Bruce Allen said he had been in contact with Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis.

“Al talked to me about what he wants to do, but I’m not sharing that with you,” Allen said with a smile. There was speculation that the Bucs had already offered Oakland all four of their picks in the first three rounds (Nos. 4, 35, 64 and 68 overall) to move up. 
 

The Tampa Tribune picked up the Yahoo article in their blog.  TBO.com

According to Yahoo Sports, the Bucs and the Oakland Raiders owner have been discussing a trade for the Raiders No. 1 pick. It would be a costly deal for Tampa Bay, maybe even all of their first four picks.

Knowing how much Davis got for Coach Jon Gruden when Tampa Bay made the deal for him in 2002 (two first round and two second round picks), its not out of the realm of possibility that Davis is asking for a lot. And given Johnsons credentials and potential for greatness, it wouldnt be far fetched to believe the Bucs would give up all of their first day picks for him.

A contingency of Bucs personnel and players, including quarterback Chris Simms, traveled to Atlanta last Friday for the former Georgia Tech receivers workout.

If the Bucs do pull off this trade, it will become evident the team is in win now or else mode. Because why else would they mortgage the future by giving up all those picks for one player? If they dont, perhaps the team learned its lesson about how difficult it is to sustain a playoff-caliber team without draft picks.
 

But the friends of Pewter Propaganda, the National Inquirer of the NFL, took the story one step further.  Profootballtalk.com

Though we realize that much of our own stuff comes from unnamed executives and other league sources, it’s hard to put much credence in the above quote without knowing who said it.  The Browns, for example, would have a strong interest in seeing such a deal go down, since it would ensure that either quarterback JaMarcus Russell or quarterback Brady Quinn will be available when Cleveland picks at No. 3.

Per the report, there is also speculation that the Bucs have offered four first-day picks ( No. 4, No. 35, No. 64, and No. 68 ) for the No. 1 pick.  Under the trade chart, however, that quartet of picks falls 130 points short of the value of the first overall selection.  As a result, the Bucs would have to give up all of their remaining picks — with the exception of two compensatory picks at the bottom of round seven — to make up the entire difference.

Bottom line:  If Al Davis is going to give up the No. 1 pick to two of his former employees (Gruden and G.M. Bruce Allen), it will have to be on the Raiders’ terms.  We wouldn’t be surprised to see Davis ask for all of Tampa’s picks in 2007 and a first-rounder in 2008.

And we also wouldn’t be surprised to see the Bucs give all of it up; for Gruden and Allen, having to worry about not having a first-round pick in 2008 will be a good thing, since it will mean that they did well enough in 2007 to still have jobs.