Doggin94it

Choice No. 1, assuming the gap between QB 3 and QB 5 is as big as I think it is.

There is none. I'd be very happy with any one of Mayfield, Rosen, or Darnold; there are legitimate arguments to be made, and fairly good chances, that any one of those three will be best QB in the draft, and that all 3 will be very good to great QBs in the NFL, along with legitimate questions about them. If only one is left on the board, which is the worst case scenario since we're at 3, I can live with that. The only real "worst case scenario," IMO, is the Jets having Allen ranked in the top 3 and the other two taken, since he has the highest bust potential AFAICT. Anything but that is fine here

4 & 1 = 5. 3 is better than 5. Make them throw in a second round pick to even out the numbers

Agreed.

Prepared in a contract negotiation means, primarily: 1) Having your due diligence done (in the NFL context, = knowing, inside and out, how the player will fit in your system and his medicals and stats); 2) Knowing your market and comps (be prepared to discuss why you are offering MLB Smith $X when MLB Jones makes $1.5X, and don't be like the fantasy football GM who offers to trade Bilal Powell for Zeke Elliott) 3) Knowing your counterparty (what issues are really important to them, that you can leverage into a concession on an area that's important to you). No idea how Mac does in his negotiations, but those would be the primary aspects of "preparation" that I can think of

Which was the entire point of the trade, and exactly why the deal was a good idea (not commenting on price, since that's market dependent) regardless of how the draft actually falls out. Would Mayfield (or one of the others) have been there at 6? Maybe. But unless there are no other tradeups and 2 of the QBs are left on the board at 6, there'll be no way to know for certain. (If the Browns pick twice, the Broncos, Giants, and us once, and there are only 2 QBs left there, then even if someone else had traded with Indy there'd have still been at least one on the board at 6. But if either of those things aren't true - if someone else trades into the top 5 for a QB, or only 1 QB is on the board at 6, then there's no guarantee that someone else wouldn't have jumped to 3 for a QB if Indy still had that pick).

Starting? That was my impression the day of the trade - plus to avoid the possibility of being completely shutout by a buffalo trade up (cle-nyg-buff-den-fuuuuuuuuu...)

If they don't enable stubhub transfers, and use technology to basically force fans to use the NFL's in-house option, they're going to be looking at an antitrust suit. So I don't think that'll be an issue

Appropriate, since we still wouldn't have a QB

Just pull over, Hess! (How've you been, btw?)

Pure joy. Happy with either

"I hate losing more than I love winning" - this, IMO, is the attitude of all the greats.

Yeah. That's just wrong

I want this to happen only so that you can learn that nothing in the universe will have that impact for most people who interact online

Hate to say it, but I don't see the point of updating after every minor transaction. An update after the draft/UDFA signings, before the start of TC, and after first cuts would make more sense, IMO. But that's why I typically don't read these threads, and other people seem to enjoy em, so keep em coming