Rich: NFL Teams Should be More Aggressive at Trade Deadline to Land Difference Makers

Rich has a simple question for NFL front offices this trade deadline season: if a player like Quenton Nelson is available midseason, why wouldn't you just go get him?

There were reportedly tons of teams in on Nelson, and Seattle landed him for a third-round pick and a fifth. "Wouldn't you try to beat a three and a five for Quenton Nelson?" Rich asked. He was upfront that it's not his job. "I'm not a general manager. I don't manage generally." But if you need an offensive lineman, he said, don't you think, "I'll deal with not having that second round pick"? Or at least figure your third is going to be better than Seattle's?

The pick in question, the crew noted, was No. 82 in the third round. Rich, who is on the draft set every year, knows good players come late. He pointed to the Niners, who have day three picks "all over their defense," and who used a fourth-round pick to get DeForest Buckner. Still, you can't draft Quenton Nelson in the late third.

What bugs Rich is the way these deals get discussed. Even Ian Rapoport said in hour one that the three and five Seattle gave up is a big hole for a midseason trade. "And I'm thinking to myself, why is that something that happens in the NFL? I'd be like, hell yeah, I'm going to go for him."

Then Rich went to his evidence. "I looked this up," he said. "That's not crazy cuz I'm a lead pipe wielding professional. I look things up."

Do you know what the 49ers gave up in 2020 for Trent Williams? A 2020 fifth-round pick and a 2021 third-round pick. "Does anybody spend a split second of their day thinking" the Niners came up empty-handed in that 2021 third round? Williams had sat out in 2019 over a contract dispute in Washington, a story Rich said "has got Dan Snyder written all over it," and San Francisco grabbed a player Rich puts on a Mount Rushmore. "And he's still going strong."

Over in the studio, someone looked up what Washington did with its two 2021 third-rounders: Benjamin St-Juste, a defensive back still in the league, and Dyami Brown.

That is Rich's whole philosophy in one trade. "I'm more of the F them picks," he said. "Get the guy who you know what their body of work is and what they can do for you right now to win a championship." He was careful not to equate Buckner with Williams, but said Buckner "could be a Hall of Famer if he goes on a nice run here," adding that he's an excellent player who is going to help the Niners right now.

Rich also previewed his own role in the aftermath. At next year's draft in DC, when the Colts are on the clock with the pick San Francisco sent for Buckner, Rich plans to say so on the air. "That's what I love about hosting the draft," he said, trying to get everyone on the same page about how it works. "I don't just give you takes." "You weave tapestries," came the reply from the studio. "I'm a tapestry weaver," Rich agreed.

The math does complicate it. Indianapolis wasn't going to trade within the AFC, and the NFC teams picking ahead of Seattle in the third round, Washington at 68, Arizona at 70, Tampa at 71 and New Orleans at 73, aren't buyers. Philly's third is 97, and nobody expected the Eagles to give up their second at 37 for Nelson. "Those teams just weren't buyers," the crew pointed out.

Rich heard it but held his ground. "The third round draft choice of said team better than what the Seahawks are probably going to give you," he said, and he was ready to go higher. "I'll give you a two." If Seattle is as good as people think, that pick lands about "as close to, you know, a free agency comp pick as you're going to get."