JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Teams work all year to prepare for draft week, scouting players, hosting workouts, creating mock drafts, and much more. However, much of that work can be rendered irrelevant by draft-day trades.
During draft day, teams often trade up to secure the player they covet or trade down to acquire extra picks.
Last year, the Jacksonville Jaguars executed three draft-day trades, including two in the first round, moving back three spots and still selecting offensive lineman Anton Harrison 27th overall.
As evidenced, Jaguars general manager Trent Baalke is willing to make draft-day trades but prefers not to make moves beforehand.
"I'm not a big believer in moving before draft day because what are you moving for? Unless you know exactly who you're moving for and you know that he's going to be there, which is impossible to know, why move? Unless you're going to number one," said Trent Baalke.
Although Baalke doesn't intend to make any trades prior to the 2024 NFL Draft, he engages in discussions with other teams about potential moves.
"We know who's willing to move and we've had preliminary discussions on what that looks like, what it's going to cost to move up there to the 12 or 13, 14, 15 or whatever the number is, and then you wait until draft day to figure out whether you're going to do it or not," said Baalke.
Even on draft day, the Jaguars wait to assess whether trading up is worthwhile.
"You really aren't going to know what we're going to do until maybe the 12th or 13th pick. Then, we'll look at the opportunity to potentially move up. If we get to 16 like we did last year, then somebody calls and there's a chance to move back one or two, you just don't know. You're playing it on game day," said Baalke.
However, trading up doesn't always guarantee success.
"We spent 360-something days putting this thing together and to try to make something happen and force something to happen, sometimes backfires on you. You chase something and it doesn't pan out, so you lose out there and then you lose out on the guy you would've picked and the two guys you would've picked with the other picks you gave up. If you're going to move up, you better be right," said Baalke.