The stunning trade between the Los Angeles Rams and Tennessee Titans took the NFL by storm Thursday, leaving many onlookers slack-jawed.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones -- no stranger to making big, bold draft trades -- was of dual mind on the matter, both shocked and simultaneously unshocked.
"I was surprised, but knowing the organization I'm not surprised," Jones said Thursday night, via ESPN.com. "They're really showing their colors. Step out there and go to Los Angeles, and then when you look at how they're setting their sails and it doesn't surprise me at all with what they're looking for in the future. It goes to show you certainly need to be thinking about your moves way in advance of the draft if you're going to go this early. I applaud them. It sounds like they got (what) they wanted.
"Then you've got to look at Tennessee and see all those draft picks. I didn't know Herschel Walker was still around."
Jones' Herschel Walker trade comment is the most interesting aspect of the owner's take.
Four games into the 1989 season, the Cowboys -- in Jones' first year as owner -- shipped Walker and four mid- and late-round picks to Minnesota in exchange for players and a load of picks, including three first-rounders, three second-rounders, a third and sixth. The Cowboys used the picks to snag several Hall of Famers and build the bulk of their '90s Super Bowl dynasty.
Whenever a team gets a bevy of picks back in a trade, like the Titans did -- receiving the No. 15 overall pick, two second-round picks and a third rounder in 2016, along with a first- and third-round pick in 2017 -- it's compared and contrasted to the Walker deal.
One big difference is that Walker was a known commodity. No one has a clue how whichever quarterback the Rams select will pan out. The trades were similar in that the Vikings felt Walker was the missing piece of a Super Bowl puzzle, just as the Rams feel like getting a franchise quarterback will finally lift them out of mediocrity.
Much like the Cowboys with Troy Aikman in 1989, the Titans have a young stud quarterback in place, Marcus Mariota. If Tennessee can use its bounty of picks to stockpile the depth of talent even close to what Dallas accomplished, the Titans will finally float back from irrelevance to a franchise to be reckoned with in the AFC.
