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Draft King Analysis
February 23, 2012
Lou Pickney, DraftKing.com

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First things first: thanks to the Philadelphia Eagles for including me in a Pre-Combine Draft Buzz column on their website yesterday. It's always appreciated when an NFL team makes mention of Draft King on its official website.

The upcoming free agent quarterback market could have a new twist thanks to the Green Bay Packers signing Jermichael Finley to a two-year, $15 million contract (guaranteed money not yet available) last night. This allows the Packers to potentially use the franchise tag on Matt Flynn and then be in position to extract compensation in exchange for his NFL rights. Even if it's only, say, a fourth-rounder, that's an extra pick that the Packers would otherwise not have.

The only risk for Green Bay would be Flynn signing his franchise tender and the Packers not being able to find a team willing to trade for him. I imagine the Packers will survey the situation and see how many teams express off-the-record interest in Flynn before the franchise tag deadline.

2011 Packers offensive coordinator Joe Philbin is now the head coach in Miami, and it would make sense for the Dolphins to go after Flynn since he would already know Philbin's offense and the Dolphins could certainly use his help at the quarterback position. That would seem like the most likely pairing, though there are several teams that could end up having interest in Flynn, including the Seattle Seahawks.

One team I've heard from multiple sources that *isn't* interested in Flynn is the Washington Redskins. The Redskins seem to have trouble with leaks getting out more than other teams, but the talk I keep hearing is this:

-Get Peyton Manning if possible.
-If that doesn't work, trade up from #6 to #2 overall with St. Louis to draft Baylor QB Robert Griffin III.
-If they aren't able to work out a deal, trade down or select Trent Richardson at #6 and then perhaps trade up into the lower part of the first round to draft to take Oklahoma State QB Brandon Weeden. As Don Banks of SI wrote yesterday, Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan saw him first-hand at the Senior Bowl and Weeden made a positive impression on him.

As for convincing the Rams to move down from #2 to #6, I would think that Mike Shanahan would be glad to mortgage the future to do whatever it takes to get RG3. If Griffin comes in and can be productive right away, Shanahan looks smart. If RG3 doesn't work out out of the gate, Shanahan could very well himself out of a job -- keep in mind that he is coming off of back-to-back losing seasons. Starting 6-10 and 5-11 in your first two seasons is not good, and while Shanahan signed a five-year, $35 million contract in January 2010, Snyder has the cash to pay out Shanahan's contract. There's no salary cap for coaches and general managers.


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