5 teams that would be wise to trade up in the NFL Draft

Jon Gruden, Oakland Raiders. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)
Jon Gruden, Oakland Raiders. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 5
Next
Anthony Lynn, Los Angeles Chargers
Anthony Lynn, Los Angeles Chargers. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images) /

West. Los Angeles Chargers. 13. AFC. 3. player. Scouting Report. Pick Analysis

One team every seems to have moving up in the 2020 NFL Draft are the Los Angeles Chargers. While they surely could move up from No. 6 and into the top five to draft the heir apparent to Philip Rivers, the Bolts may be content in rolling with head coach Anthony Lynn‘s guy Tyrod Taylor for at least half the year and take somewhat of a developmental project at No. 6. That’s possible.

But by standing pat at No. 6, it almost assures us that Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Tua Tagovailoa won’t be playing in powder blues. The Hawaiian native would be a huge hit on the West Coast, but he’s not falling past the Miami Dolphins at No. 5 by any remote stretch of the imagination. The Bolts would wind up with Oregon’s Justin Herbert or Utah State’s Jordan Love.

Chargers general manager Tom Telesco is very good at what he does. Even if the Chargers organization has its own issues, he’s not one of them. He’s better at his job than many front offices picking ahead of his team this spring. If he can find a potential trade partner in the No. 2 to No. 4 range, he can assure himself of at least Herbert, and possibly Tagovailoa if he does this right.

Even if the Chargers don’t have a heaping amount of draft capital, they can use their normal allotment of seven picks to get creative and move up to get a quarterback. They haven’t had a need to draft a starting quarterback since they traded Eli Manning‘s draft rights for Rivers back in 2004. You can’t go cheap on quarterbacks. The Chargers would be willing to pay a slight premium.