Are "bad" drafts an advantage for the NFL's best or worst teams?

Robert Mays· Host0:00

Welcome to The Athletic Football Show. I'm Robert Mays. What you're about to hear today is actually a mailbag with Derek Klassen and Dave Helman that we recorded on Friday. But we had some fun news in the NFL world this weekend, so we wanted at least a couple thoughts on the Dexter Lawrence trade before we got into today's show. Um, this was a fun one. I, I... On a bunch of different levels, there's so much to dig into here. The tenth overall pick for Dexter Lawrence is an incredibly aggressive move, uh, by a Bengals team that doesn't really make a lot of splashes like this. And so a few thoughts about that and kind of what signal I think it sends. We're in a place now where teams have more money to spend than they can on quality outside free agents. As the cap keeps growing, there are gonna be more players retained by their original teams and just fewer impact players that end up hitting the market. Really, the only way to ensure that you're going to get one of those difference-making guys is by trading for them, and I think the Bengals being the team that's willing to do this and get in on the act in the way that some other teams have been over the last couple years, is really a signal that the tide has shifted a little bit. But even in that environment, the tenth overall pick is a lot to give up. You look at analogous deals, it kinda reminds me a little bit of the price tag for a DeForest Buckner several th- years ago, but Buckner was two years younger, just, just heading into his second contract. Dexter Lawrence is 28, Buckner was 26. Quinnen Williams went for a lot at the deadline last year, even if it wasn't the tenth overall pick. Let's just hypothetically say that 2027 first from the Cowboys is 20th overall. You combine that with 44 this year, that still, according to the trade