How the Cassel trade affects the NFL Draft

Cassell Trade Affects Top of Draft: Matt Cassel’s trade to the Kansas City Chiefs has sent shock waves around the league. Forget how little Kansas City gave up for a guy that appears to have all the tools of a franchise quarterback, and you still have a lot of shock waves.

The trade means Kansas City, drafting #3 overall no longer needs a quarterback. Despite Tyler Thigpen’s great play to end the season many experts thought the Chiefs were still considering drafting quarterback Mark Sanchez from USC (assuming that Matthew Stafford would be gone already).

That means Sanchez will fall out of the top five for sure and could fall all the way to the middle of round one if Green Bay or San Francisco don’t take him at picks #9 and #10. This is all assuming that Matthew Stafford goes to the Detroit Lions at #1 overall, which is not a given. If Stafford doesn’t go #1 then we could have to wait for our first QB to come off the board at #9.

Houshmandzadeh signing drops Crabtree: A lot of people have had Michael Crabtree going #4 overall to the Seattle Seahawks for quite a while now. It made perfect sense. Seattle needed a big play wide receiver and a go to guy for quarterback Matt Hasselbeck.

It’s time to throw that out the window now. The Seahawks have signed former Cincinnati Bengals standout wide receiver T. J. Houshmandzadeh to a five year deal, leaving Seattle’s wide receiver needs filled. Although it’s not inconceivable to think that Crabtree could go #2 or #3 to St. Louis or Kansas City it isn’t looking too likely. Both teams have young receivers they like. St. Louis has Donnie Avery and Kansas City has Dwayne Bowe.

That means the first receiver could have to wait until after the top five picks to be drafted. A lot will be decided by the Chad Johnson situation in Cincinati, but with Johnson still on board in Cincy for now it’s hard to imagine the Bengals spending that much money on a wide receiver. Oakland seems like a logical landing place, where Al Davis could pair young quarterback JaMarcus Russell and young running back Darren McFadden with a young wide receiver.