Jason Peters trade

I know what you may be thinking: Why am I covering this trade? I’m covering it as I think Jason Peters may have been my all time greatest call for projecting a player to the NFL. For those that haven’t been reading my coverage for a while, I felt that Peters was too big to be a TE like he was in college, but he was the perfect three year project as a top shelf pass protector at OT. I was so high on him that I thought he should have been drafted as high as the 4th round, even though he had never played a snap at OT. In the end Peters went undrafted, the Bills picked him up as a free agent after the draft, gave him three years to develop, and found themselves a Pro Bowl LT in the process. Now comes the part that I just can’t seem to understand. Why on Earth do you trade a player of his caliber in his prime for less than market value? Yes, they got a first round pick, but it’s the 28th pick overall. Plus a 4th round pick and an undisclosed second day pick next year…for a Pro Bowl LT. I know that some of you will point to the Cutler trade to tell me I might be a touch hypocritical, but I do think Denver made a fatal mistake by trading Cutler as well. And a QB is worth more than a LT, but a LT of Peters’ caliber is worth more than what Philly gave up for him. I think what this does is open the door for Buffalo to pick up Michael Oher at pick number 11. At least they better hope that Oher is there because they now have a gaping hole at LT that needs to be filled sooner rather than later. This also shakes up the bottom of the first round because the Eagles now have to make the choice of drafting a RB like Knowshon Moreno, or maybe revisiting the trade talks for one of the veteran receivers on the market (like Braylon Edwards, Chad Ocho Cinco, or Anquan Boldin). It also means a DE like Michael Johnson may see his slipping stock saved by the DE needy Bills at #28.