It could be smoke and mirrors, or it could be spot on.
No, it's only smoke and mirrors. They are collectively not tipping their hand, partly because it's smart and partly because they really don't know yet.
All the scouting in the world is no substitute for having real sit-downs with prospects and assessing them fully. Ask them about the film everyone else (including you and your scouts) is speculating about. Get a sense of their intelligence, maturity, humility, and leadership. What happens between now and the draft for the teams in real need of a QB is crucially important.
It would be really stupid to have an absolute answer right now, so they don't. And that's exactly what Peters said. DQ was intentionally vague because they don't know, he wouldn't say who if they did know, and it wouldn't be his job to say who regardless.
And OFC NE may have reason to move. If they really want Daniels, and another team really wants Daniels, then only way to guarantee him is #2, and they easily give up the least to move up.
That's not what I said. I said NE has no reason to move if it's Washington that approaches them because I was replying to what you said about it being
"smart to leverage the 2, even if it's only with the Pats..." They would have to 100% know who NE wants AND not want that guy to even entertain the idea, and neither team has any reason to be transparent.
* If DC intends to select Daniels or Maye, they have absolutely no reason to trade back. They will definitely have strong feelings about one over the other unless they're the most wishy washy football experts ever.
* So if NE really wants one of those guys so much that they're willing to pay, they'd have to give up a package worth DC not getting who they want, which only works if DC absolutely does not tell anyone who they really want. This is why we're all so sure that DQ said nothing the other day. We respect his football intelligence.
* If WE are the team that wants to move back as you suggested, it means we either feel VERY, VERY good about a QB that isn't Maye or Daniels OR that our new front office is a bunch of p***yes willing to trade away our agency for some maybes.
* At 3 with no guarantees of moving anywhere, NE has to be confident about more than one guy. Their offense currently has ZERO identity. They have nothing to build around. The upside is when you're starting from zero, you can build around anyone, any style. So why pay anything to move up with a QB class this deep?
I'm really sorry about the length of this, but you have to consider both perspectives and think a few moves ahead. You can't just say "We can get Herbert!" and not look at the $130m cap hit that makes it impossible. You can't just say "Arizona might move up!" when they have zero reason to do so. And you can't just say "Moving to 3 makes sense!" because it can only really make sense to one side or the other because one side has to do something really dumb.
The Pats definitely can't afford the assets and the Commanders shouldn't want to surrender control.
