Trades like this do happen but they happen at the moment.
We did one last year in the 2nd round that stunned me and showed that are front office had balls of steel.
This trade either has seem to go unnoticed by Dolphin fans or is simply not talked about.
http://www.nfl.com/draft/2009/tracker#dt-by-round-input:2
We had just wasted the 12th pick(#44) in the 2nd round on Pat White.
I'm sitting here bummed out and watching us lose out on the really good players we needed get taken but the one player I really really want, Sean Smith is still on the board.
So we are at our 2nd pick in the 2nd round (24th in the round and 56th overall) and I'm saying
draft Sean Smith!
And we trade the pick to the Colts and move to the 29th pick in the round and 61st over all and we add a 5th round pick.
I'm quickly getting depressed because I see 4 teams that IMO need a corner and they have the chance to take Smith.
The Ravens take OLB Paul Kruger which IMO is a very good pick for their defense and is a player I'd be happy with in our defense. For the Ravens he was playing behind Suggs but could have been a starter for us in his rookie year.
Then the Patriots ( I was ready to slit my wrist)
take OT Sebastian Vollmer???? WTF? Who is he I'm thinking. I read about him and the pick gets odder.
The Panthers then take FS Sherrod Martin. I'm again going hmmm as they have a young FS already in Charles Godfrey. But it turns out that both play in every game and between them have a decent year. Godfrey starts 11 game and Martin starts in 5.
But I'm think that was close considering that some people think that Sean Smith is really a FS.
Then the Giants take OT William Beatty who is the 2nd OT taken in 3 picks when IMO the team did not have a real need for them.
So with pick 29 we draft Sean Smith so it all worked out and I'm happy (at least until we draft Pat Turner with so many good players at needed positions still left).
So how do we use the pick that the Colts traded to us?
With the 29th pick in the 5th round (#61) we snag Chris Clemons who I expected would start sometime this year because before the season started I thought Bell and Wilson were a pair of safeties with poor coverage skills. However Wilson did start all year, I think at least partly due to the big money we are paying him.
So trading down can work really well but it has to happen at the moment.