By Terry McCormick,
October 06, 2005
When Tennessee Titans general manager Floyd Reese swapped his first-round pick in 2004 in a draft day trade with division rival Houston, he couldnt have known that the results would be so lopsided in his favor.
Reese traded the 27th pick overall in the draft and threw in pick No. 159 (a fifth-rounder) to the Texans in exchange for Houstons pick in the second round (No. 40 overall), as well as a third-rounder, fourth-rounder and a fifth-round choice).
The reason the Texans were so eager to move up was the chance to select Jason Babin, a speed rushing end from Western Michigan, whom they projected to be an outside linebacker in the 3-4 defense. Babin wont play Sunday because of a shoulder injury.
Houston traded the 159th pick to Jacksonville for two other choices, and wound up with safety Jammal Lord (who is on their practice squad) and linebacker Raheem Orr, who is no longer on the team.
In exchange, the Titans wound up with four players, all of whom have contributed to varying degrees, including two starters.
With the 40th choice, the Titans selected tight end Ben Troupe, following that with starting defensive tackle Randy Starks at No. 71 overall. Tennessee then picked defensive end Bo Schobel (103rd) and tackle Jacob Bell (138th) with the final two choices.
Reese certainly would make the deal again, especially consider how its worked out for Tennessee.
It depends on the complexion of your team, he said. In the situation we were in, we would rather have the four picks, because you would hope that all four picks would be able to come in and help you to a certain degree.
Now, if you feel like youve got 21 of your 22 players already on the roster, and you need one guy, and hes there, then you probably make the deal.
The Titans had contemplated taking Troupe at No. 27 before making the trade, but with him and Georgia tight end Ben Watson still on the board, Reese gambled that he could grab the extra picks and still take one of the tight ends at No. 40. He won.
We made the deal, thinking one of those two guys would be there when we came up at 40. It turned out that Ben was there, and we were happy and thrilled that he was, Reese said.
As for Babin, who had four sacks as a rookie, Texans coach Dom Capers still holds out hope that the deal will eventually even up.
We think hes got a bright future, Capers said. He started and played every game for us last year. And really the injury affected what we had to do, more than anything else, this year. But, weve got high expectations for Jason.
I wonder how Leinert ranks among QBs who were considered # 1 picks . All the bad teams have young highly picked QBs . If the Texans season goes the way its going we may hold a pick that we can get a kings ransom for by trading to a team who is only looking for a young QB.
