Could Thomas Dimitroff actually be considering a deal that would cost the Atlanta Falcons' their first round pick in the 2013 NFL Draft, too? If Ray Edwards really is the answer to the standard shrieking OMG-U-NEED2-fill-the-needs response to Atlanta's deal for Julio Jones, then yes. Or at least maybe.
In this highly uncertain time of free agency restrictions - any potential deal is a hypothetical until the League and players can agree on a restricted free agency format as part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement - it stands that we can trust the reasoning of our friends* at The Daily Norseman.
Their logic - if a new CBA is agreed upon in time for a free agency period before the coming season, Edwards could be an unrestricted free agent and anybody's for a price. However, under pre-Lockout rules, he'd be considered a restricted free agent and the Vikings have him tendered at the first round level, meaning the Falcons would surrender - you're following along! - another first round pick.
If the latter scenario comes true, rest assured Arthur Blank is managing his business according a Mayan fiscal year. Such a move to surrender two consecutive first round picks eclipses Dimitroff's new rep for "not doing it the New England way" or the media narrative that "the Falcons are ready to win it at all now," and takes us to a more alarming end-of-days scenario.
One eye-opening mortgage of draft picks is risky. Two within the same offseason tells me you've got some information that we're all a short minute from living out a Cormac McCarthy novel, and that a Lombardi trophy would fetch a bounty catamites and kerosene during a nuclear winter.
Some perspective on this newfound "pieces to win now" talking point: Rex Ryan will tell anyone he thinks is listening that the Jets will win the Super Bowl next year - David Letterman, random passersby on the street, even inanimate objects (standing urinals = great listeners), but the Jets organization is mindful enough to not surrender a presidential term of football to foolproof that ridiculous claim.
And the Falcons haven't even so much as dabbled in that brand of bold spin; in the ashes of Michael Vick and Bobby Petrino, Dimitroff's mantra from day one was that the franchise goal has been to win 10 or more games a year as quietly as possible, and stop scaring white people.
It's impossible to dismiss two of these type of deals back-to-back. Wag a finger that we don't want to learn how to believe all you want - no one can sniff out a vintage Aundray Bruce deal like us.
(*I know what you're thinking: '91 World Series, '98 NFC Championship. But after we've both reaped the hellish fruits of bookending Brett Favre's career, there's a kinship among survivors of a tragedy. So let's just call it square, 'K?)