General Manager Nick Caserio
Opening statement
"First of all, welcome. Appreciate everyone being here this afternoon. It's an exciting time for everybody, players, staff, coaches, the organization. It's a good opportunity for us here next week to continue to build our team for the 2022 season. Kind of working through a number of different phases with the club right now, offseason program winding down here with some of our draft meetings trying to compile as much information as possible and really fine tuning more than anything else. Just making sure we're prepared and ready to go here next Thursday. First off, just a tip of the cap to the scouting staff. They really have put in as much time as anybody in the process. I think this is a collective effort. It's a collaborative process. They do an unbelievable job. We ask a lot of them, and they deliver. They're doing things here that even over the last week or so just collecting more information, verifying information that we have. I'm just trying to go through everyone we have and acknowledge them and name them. On the college side, from Liip (James Liipfert), Tom Hayden, John Ritcher, Zeke (Mozique McCurtis), Naj (Najja Johnson), George Panos, Bailee (Brown), Blaise (Taggart), Nate Trott, Brad (Mathews) and Haley (Stork). Baz (Matt Bazirgan) on the pro side. Ronnie (McGill), Frank Edgerly, Rohit (Mogalayapalli), Todd Jones. Those guys, they deserve as much credit as anybody. I think whoever we select next week, however many players we end up selecting, it's going to be a collective effort. It's not going to be about one person. It's not going to be about one player. It's not going to be Nick's pick. It's not going to be Lovie (Smith)'s pick. It's going to be the Houston Texans' pick. We are going to embrace that player. We are going to embrace them in our building. We are going to try to develop and grow him and give him the best opportunity to be successful on the field on Sundays when they have the opportunity to play.
As far as the offseason program is concerned, we've had a really good turnout here the first two weeks, phase one, which it's really limited to mostly work in the weight room. The coaches have had an opportunity to meet with the players so that's been good in terms of system implementation, introducing some new terminology, introducing new players to some of the things that we are doing. The turnout has been outstanding. I think we are close to 80 percent, 85, 90 percent of the team and some of the players that aren't here have a legitimate reason, personal situation that they might be dealing with. It says a lot about the players. It says a lot about the staff that they are excited to be here. They are excited to work and get ready to go. Next week, we'll have an opportunity to get out on the field with the voluntary minicamp which I would say will be more of an individual, skill instruction, not going to do anything that puts the players in a position where they may be at risk. It will be a good opportunity to get out on the field, a lot of communication, a lot of individual work, kind of simulation, almost like phase two more than anything else. That will be Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and then we will transition Thursday night into the draft and get it rolling Thursday, Friday, Saturday and hopefully have a good, productive weekend and get ready to go for the following week."
What are your priorities when it comes to the draft?
"I think the most important thing is just try to continue to build the team. That's the most important thing, and to not get too caught up in the short term, where a player is picked, who the player is. The most important thing for any new player that comes in our building, rookie, veteran, second-year player is work hard, be a good teammate, be selfless, put the team first and just try to make progress and try to develop your individual skillset more importantly than anything else. The opportunities are going to come once we get on the field and the best people are going to play. I think this time of year, honestly, it's like silly season. There is so much misinformation that's out there, from who we've brought in for visits, what pro day I've been to, what players we've worked out that we haven't worked out. You try to put that all aside and focus. The draft really is a mechanism to get the players into the building. How do you do that? They have to get picked in certain rounds, certain players are going to get picked in certain rounds but that does not guarantee that they are going to have long-term success. Once you get them in the building, they are ours. Everything that comes along with that player, that player is ours, and their responsibility is to take it one day at a time, put one foot in front of the other and make incremental improvements and progress and not worry about what your role is. Am I going to start? How much am I going to be on the field? Who's playing around me? Am I going to play in front of this guy? That's not the type of program and mindset we want the players to have. I think (Christian) Kirksey made a comment last week about our team and our program and some of the things that are important, and I completely agree with what Christian said. I think a player that comes in, especially a rookie, if I'm a rookie, I'm going to listen to what he has to say and watch his example, and it's about action more than words. The expectation is the same for the player that we draft in the first round, to the player that we draft in the seventh round, to the player that we sign after the draft. It doesn't change. I think the external expectations might be a little different, but that's okay. You guys have a platform. You can have fun with that but that's not our job. It's not our responsibility. Our job is to develop the players in totality as much as we can. Understanding certain players are going to take a little more time than others. Other players might assimilate quicker. That's just the process that they are going to have to go through. I think the attributes that we look for in players are no different in drafted players, to veteran players, to players that have been in other programs. Once they get here, what can I do to be the best Houston Texan? What can I do to be the best teammate? That's where the focus needs to be, and what can I do to improve my skills as a player so that when I go onto the field I am physically and mentally prepared for the rigors I am going to face."
Do you view this rebuild as a weight more because of the draft capital you have this year compared to last?
"I've never used the term rebuild. I think the rebuild has kind of been an external term. I think what we've focused on is building our team. How do we build our team? What are the resources that we have available? What are the assets that we have to deploy? That's how we've viewed it. I would say just in terms of the player acquisition process, like you said we have five picks in the first 80 and then another two in the fourth round, so call it seven in the top 108 assuming nothing changes, which I wouldn't hold my breath on that. It's no different. It's try to get good players that are good people that understand we're building a program and we are building the 2022 team. That's really where the focus is. It's short term, but it's also understanding. I would say one of the things that's probably unique to this year's draft, there are some players that injuries are going to factor into the evaluation, right, wrong or indifferent, but that could affect some players to some degree. So, having an idea of if there may be a player that isn't going to play this year, are you okay with that? Are you comfortable with that? You might be. What is the draft capital that you have to allocate to that particular player? So, you're worried about this year, but part of my job is to worry about the long-term position of the franchise and try to put ourselves in the best position possible. Whether that's draft resources, draft capital, salary cap situation, which we are in a much better position today than we were a year ago. I think we are second or third. It depends on if you factor in the Denzel Ward extension with Cleveland, but you know we are at the top of the league. We have some flexibility both from a salary cap standpoint and a draft capital standpoint. The most important thing is making good decisions with those resources. You can make bad decisions. You can have 500 draft picks, but if you don't use those picks appropriately than it's not going to work."
How do you drill a draft? What is the best way to feel prepared when you have so many picks on the front end?
"There is no perfect formula. I think what you have to do is you evaluate the players. You assign a grade and what we are doing now is it's not as much the vertical stacking as it is horizontal. You're kind of looking at equivalent valued players and their position relative to where you may have to acquire them. Part of our process is we are not afraid to eliminate some players. It doesn't mean that we don't like them but maybe it's where they are expected to be picked relative to the greater value, we have on him. Let's not spend too much time on them. I would say there is roughly 80-100 players that we would actually draft. That doesn't mean that we are going to draft them all in the first round but at some point, I would say that is about the number. Other teams could be different but what we have to do is look at our team, look at the position of our board, look horizontally and just make an assessment about if we pick here realistically, is this player a possibility? If he's not a factor, let's move on, let's go to the next slide. This seems like more of a sweet spot where you might be able to acquire that player. I would say this draft generally speaking it's a little bit more of a crap shoot. There are players that are all over the place. I don't think there is a consensus on any player. I think if you talk to different teams, you talk to different people, who is the top player at this position, there's six players, you will get six different answers. It could make it a little more hectic, but you have to trust your information, trust your resources, trust your preparation, trust your evaluation of the player and then just be able to say ok, 'This is how we view the player; this is what we think his role is going to be but ultimately the player's performance is going to determine what their role is going to be. We look at some of the mock drafts for more general positioning not well this player is projected to go 15th overall well we are picking 13th is he going to there, not necessarily. You are trying to get a general vicinity or range. This group of players is ranked this and above, more than likely they are going to fall here, the next group of players, how are we positioned? Is it even a possibility? Those are kind of the discussions and dialogues we are having internally. The reality is, you really don't know until you start to get going. 32 players are going to get picked Thursday night. Once you get through Thursday then there is going to be another set of players that comes into play, and we will recalibrate Friday morning to get ready for the following night."
What do you think of the wide receiver market in this draft? How does it measure up with your resources and needs?
"There are good players at various levels at most positions. I was looking at some different positions and different players league wide and some of the better players at their position, so, the guys like (Travis) Kelce, (George) Kittle. One guy was a third-round pick. One guy was a fifth-round pick. Austin Ekeler, I would say one of the better backs in the league, wasn't drafted. Marques Colston, this is going back, not to outdate myself but in New Orleans, the all-time leading receiver, he wasn't drafted. Everybody wants to talk about (Tom) Brady but forget about Brady for a minute. Joe Thuney was a third-round pick. Stefon Diggs, there's another guy. He was a fifth-round pick. Our job is to understand the depth of the draft top to bottom. Some positions just by supply and demand are going to have more players than others at those positions. It doesn't mean they are not good players. It just means that certain positions have more players but just because there are more players doesn't mean that they are all created equal. That player and that position versus another position, well maybe if we pick this player here but the supply at this position is a little less than you may be more inclined to take this position now or vice versa. You try not to pigeonhole yourself. Most important is to have as much depth and understanding at each position as possible even on down-fitted players that you don't think are going to get drafted. We spend as much time on that group probably as anything, including the top of the draft. You have to be careful about quote-unquote what your needs are or what people perceive your needs to be, and then just picking players based on your needs. Pick good football players that are going to enhance your overall team and give yourself the opportunity to put together a sustained team over the course of however many years."
How much does a possible run on a position affect if you pick a position at a certain pick?
"This time you are looking at groups of players or clusters of players across different positions and I would say what that factors the most is trades, so, if you are moving up or moving down. What are you moving away from? If you move back 10 spots, there is six to eight you like, there is a good chance if you move back that same player will be there or within that cluster, you are comfortable taking said two to three players within that group. You don't want to be too cute, but you also want to look at the totality of it and understand the group top to bottom and the depth of the overall draft across positions, I think is the most important thing."
How much did the first round of OTAs factor into the draft?
"Probably not that much. You hope to have a good understanding over where your team is as we stand. Lovie (Smith) and I talked about this the other day. When you go into the draft, you have to look at your team and say if we had to go out there and play tomorrow, would we be able to go out there and field a competitive team and be able to play? I would say the answer to that is yes. You don't want to have to rely on the draft and be like, 'Well we can't play in a game unless we draft ABC.' We have what we think is a decent idea of where our team is currently now some of that will sort itself out as we go. Maybe one player you didn't think was as good as another one ends up passing the other one, that's going to play out over the course of OTAs and even training camp. As far as next week, it's really not going to factor that much into who we actually end up drafting. I think they are two different buckets. Next week is really more of an opportunity to say, 'Ok, we have our team as it's currently constructed. They've been here a couple of weeks.' Now, we are going to be able to get on the field a little bit and do a little bit more coaching. Working more individually. Quarterbacks throwing to wide receivers. Quarterbacks throwing to tight ends. Not necessarily as much 11-on-11 or even 7-on-7. To make an assessment of three days in shorts, a guy throwing routes on air, I mean I could probably go out there and throw a few passes next week but that doesn't mean anything, probably not very much at all. I think you just have to be careful about not putting too much stock on what goes on those three days next week."
Can you describe the process of evaluating players on and off the field and how they'd fit into the culture you want to establish?
"Honestly, that's a huge part of the process. When a player comes into our building, he's a Houston Texan and he has to embrace everything that comes along with being a Houston Texan. Quite frankly, our building is different. There are 32 buildings that are all different. When they walk in here, here's the standard, here's the expectation, here's what we ask of you each day, and there's going to be a learning process that they have to go through. What we try to do is be as comprehensive as possible in as many areas as possible. It's playing, it's coaching, it's interpersonal development, it's strength development, it's nutrition development and overall education and understanding. They have to figure out the city of Houston, where to live, how far they want to be from the stadium. Those are some of the things that you really don't spend too much time talking about, but they're important. Then when you're in the meeting room, if I'm a linebacker and I walk in the meeting room and I'm in there with Kirko (Christian Kirksey), I'm in there with K.G. (Kamu Grugier-Hill), I'm in there with Neville (Hewitt), those players are pretty important people. They're good people, they're solid people, they're hardworking, they're smart. There's a certain standard of behavior that's required. When you walk in that room, you have to be able to kind of have self-awareness to know that, 'Look, I'm new, I'm a rookie.' I don't care how good of a player you are or what round you were drafted in. Quite frankly, it doesn't matter because you haven't earned anything. I would say a lot of the rookies more than anything is off the field and interpersonal and overall self-awareness and understanding of how they act on a day-to-day basis and being conscious of who they may interact with. That's as important as how fast they can run, how high they can jump, how many touchdowns they're going to score or how many tackles they're going to make. We've spent a lot of time talking about it. I think it's taken some time to get to this point. That doesn't mean that it's perfect, doesn't mean that we have all the answers, it just means this is something we believe in because you can't have a good team until you get those things right, and it doesn't necessarily ensure success. What it does ensure is at least gives you a chance. If you're bringing up good people that are hardworking, that are selfless, that put the team first, that work hard, that are smart, that go out there and play decent football, then our execution ultimately is going to determine how much success we have. But talent's important, I'm not saying talent's not important. Talent's important, but you have to combine that with a lot of other attributes, and that's what goes into making a successful player and ultimately what goes into having a successful team."
Does versatility factor in to where a player sits on your big board?
"It could be a part of it, but you have to go back and maybe get a better understanding of what that player was asked to do within their system, because it might be something different in our system. Just because a player has played corner and slot corner, does that necessarily mean he could do both for us? Or if a player has played safety and he's played slot corner, is he able to do both? This is where I'd say the meaning and interaction, how much information can they absorb, can they handle the adjustments, can they handle volume? Some players can from the perimeter to inside the offensive line, some people can't. Some of that is a feel, and a lot of it is just how much can a player handle, how much can he absorb, and can he actually perform the job that you're asking him to do? You could say, 'Well, this guy, we think he's got tackle/guard flex,' but you might find out he's really not good inside, we've got to just keep him at tackle and he's a tackle only. That's okay. That means we have to supplement the rest of that group with maybe somebody else. You can look at it. There's a handful of examples of some players, which is kind of interesting, in-game they go from one position to the next. They go from right guard to right tackle, they go from left guard to left tackle, which that doesn't happen a lot, but when you see it you kind of make note of it and go, 'Okay, well maybe that's something we should investigate further.' But then the player, maybe he says, 'I'm more comfortable here.' We sort of care what the players think, but we don't care. But you want to keep that in mind. It's a part of the evaluation, but you don't want to get too caught up in it and automatically just say, 'Okay, he did this in this system, let's drop him into our system and we think he'll be able to do the same thing.' It doesn't always necessarily work that way."
What are some of the intangibles and personality traits you look for when meeting with players?
"I'll give you an example, when somebody talks about leadership. What does leadership mean? Give us an example of how you implement or institute leadership. I think sometimes you find that players can actually articulate that and what it means, some players really don't have a tangible example. It says okay, maybe his overall awareness of what leadership is, like that answer, it's not a lot of insight but it kind of gives you some direction. 'Alright, maybe he's not as smart or has as much as maybe he thought he did.' You don't eliminate a player, I think you have to just be careful. This is where, going back to the combine, 15 minutes, have a conversation with a guy, walks out of the room and you say, 'Alright, he's not a Houston Texan.' You can't do that. You have to spend more time, which I would say when we bring the players in here for a visit, it's pretty comprehensive. It's not just walk in, let's go have a steak and then come back and shake his hand and tell him, 'Hey, if you're there at No. 13, we're going to draft you.' We're not doing that. What we're going to do is, 'Okay, you're going to meet the position coach. You're going to meet the coordinator. Defense install, we're going to see if you can retain that information. We're going to talk to you about maybe an experience you had on your team or maybe an example of diversity,' and see if they can articulate some thoughts. What's their overall understanding, overall awareness, and say 'Alright, maybe there's some other things, maybe some risk factors,' that doesn't necessarily eliminate the player. Just have to understand when he walks in the building that maybe he's not as far along in this area as we thought. Those are some of the things that I think are most beneficial of the in-house visits. Then we give them an opportunity to spend time with our strength staff, and then give them an opportunity to spend some time with Ladd (Harris) and nutrition and talk about nutrition. Some of these guys have no idea how important what you put into your body affects performance on the field. That's important, it makes a difference. Trying to give them as much information as possible. It's interesting too, because when they go in to talk to Lovie (Smith), they're on their best behavior. When they're not talking to Lovie and maybe they're somewhere else with a different staff member, they give off a different vibe or a different message. So, then you sort of corroborate the information like, 'Wait a minute, he was this way, but over here he said a different thing. Well, maybe there's a gap. We've got to try to fill that gap.' It's not like playing 'gotcha', but it's just trying to make sure we have enough checks and balances in place. Going back to what we talked about in the beginning when a player walks into the building, you're taking everything that comes along with this player. Our job is to understand it at the best of our ability and make sure our staff understands that and say, 'Okay, here's an area where we'll have to spend a lot of time on this. If we have to have extra time, extra resources, that's okay. That's part of our responsibility because the most important thing is to get that player to optimize their performance ultimately on Sunday, and however long that takes, whatever resources that requires, we have to do that. We have to be committed to doing that and all of us have to be committed to doing that, which goes back to this is a Houston Texans pick. It's not somebody's individual pick, it's our pick, it's our player. We've got to embrace him and then give him the opportunity to grow and develop."
Head Coach Lovie Smith has mentioned that you can't play the kind of defense you want without improving the cornerback position. How much weight does that carry in the draft process, and how important is it for you and the head coach to be on the same page?
"The most important thing is hopefully we give ourselves an opportunity to improve our football team. That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to improve our football team, we're trying to continue to build our football team, and the input of our coaching staff is a huge part of it. I'd be ignorant not to take the input of our coaches. We've given our staff a number of players to evaluate. We've actually gone through those evaluations and if we have a discrepancy on a player, 'Hey Coach, what did you see with this player? We see it a little bit differently.' That forces you to go back and do a little bit of extra work. I think the most important thing is to at least get the player in the general vicinity, and let's say you had a stack of four players. They see it one, two, three, four, maybe you see the third player as the second player, but at least you are kind of in the same zip code. It's when a coach sees it one way, we see it a different way, there's a cavernous gap, you either 'A', we need to spend a little more time, or 'B', let's just move on to another player. It's maybe not worth the hassle. Or he's going to go somewhere we probably won't have an opportunity to pick him, but their input is valuable. We have a pretty experienced staff, so they've seen a lot of players, they've evaluated a lot of players, so they're going to have input. Ultimately, the most important thing is for us to make the best decision for our team and just to keep moving forward, and whomever we pick, whoever that player is, whatever position he plays, he's here, he's ours and we're going to do the best we can to develop him. Look, everybody's going to have an opinion. We're respectful to their opinions. Ultimately, I'm going to have to make the decision, but it's going to be done in concert with the group of people. Ultimately, if the player works, Lovie (Smith) will get the credit. If he doesn't, you guys can blame me."
What is your philosophy on moving around in the draft, and would you call yourself aggressive in regards to making a move to get the player you want?
"Flexible, open-minded, adaptable, I would say those are adjectives I would use to describe that process. The reality is probably very few teams are going to want to come up to No. 3, just being honest. That's okay. So probably pick at No. 3, and then No. 13, could we go up, could we go down? Over the next week or so, you're going to talk to different teams more about positioning, about what's their philosophy, about what's their willingness to move. Some teams are just set, like 'We're not moving, we're going to pick.' Some teams only want to move down. Some teams say, 'We haven't really thought about that, but okay, maybe we'd consider moving up.' I think it's important to just be open-minded and be flexible, and this goes back to what we talked about at the beginning. The better you understand the players and the better you understand the positioning of the board, it just gives you more opportunities to make good decisions. If you feel like it makes sense to move either one direction or the other, again, maybe you have a cluster of players. There are six players, you'd like to get two of them. Maybe you have to move one way or the other to ensure you get one of those players. If that's the best thing for our team then we'll have that discussion or dialogue. I think Lovie (Smith)'s been pretty open-minded. We've had some discussions about that. 'Hey coach, you know what, be prepared either way, what are your thoughts, how do you feel?' He's been great about that. We want to be responsible and we're not going to do anything haphazardly, but just being able to pivot and kind of move and just being able to adjust. The first round you have a little more time. You've got 10 minutes to pick, but once you get going to the second round, there's seven minutes, and then you get into five minutes and things happen pretty quickly. You just want to make sure you're prepared, make a good decision, and once you make a decision, you live with the decision, and you move on."
How do you begin to assess players who go undrafted?
"You really want to try to establish a little bit of a relationship or a rapport with the player so that first time that you reach out to the player isn't after the draft or on Saturday. Look, the reality is there are only so many players that are going to get drafted, 200 and however many slots there are, there's more players than that in the draft. There's a number of players who aren't going to get drafted and there's going to end up being some pretty good players who for whatever reason don't get drafted. You saw a pretty good example here in free agency this year. You're talking about one of the highest paid corners in free agency this year was a player that wasn't drafted. How the hell does that happen? This goes back to this process, there's no exact science. Being able to kind of say, 'Alright, you know what, more likely than not, this player's not going to get drafted,' so you try to earmark the five or six players now. If half of them get drafted, then you can go to maybe the last three, and based on your roster, what those players do and free agents do, they look at the team and say where does he have the best opportunity realistically? I would say just philosophically, we don't really care where they come from. If the undrafted player is better than the third-round pick, so be it. Obviously, something happened with the third-round pick that didn't work, but if that player is better than the other player, that's the way it goes. You can't be afraid of that. Austin Ekeler is one of the best backs in the league, he basically displaced Melvin Gordon essentially, who's a pretty good player. But Ekeler's a good player, he wasn't drafted, but he's been one of the better multi-purpose backs in the league. How does that happen? I don't know, maybe somebody smarter than me knows that answer but I certainly don't have one."
In your last five years with the Patriots, there wasn't a year where you didn't trade at least one late round pick. How do you evaluate that?
"It's really more about positioning and it's about supply and demand relative to maybe players you have draftable grades on. It doesn't mean you're right or wrong, but let's say you're working through the process. Right now, we have three sixths and one seventh. You're looking up there and you're looking at a group of players that you don't really have a draftable grade on, but maybe there's a few. If you have some conviction about a player that you feel like he's going to make our team, he's going to have a role in the kicking game, instead of waiting maybe we take a couple picks, package them and move up a little bit just to get that player on a roster. I'd say that's part of it. It's not, 'Oh my gosh, they gave up two sixth round picks to trade into the fifth round to draft Garret Wallow.' I love Garret, Garret's great, but a lot of that is just positioning more than anything else. Some teams are more inclined to even do that before the draft. 'Hey, we don't have any late round picks. We'd like to acquire them. Okay, maybe we can package a few of ours, ship them to somebody else, and then position ourselves in a different spot. This goes back to what we were talking about. I think I'm a pretty flexible, open-minded individual and I try to be open-minded. It really is player-specific, grade-specific, draftable grades and whether or not you think the player may actually have a realistic shot to make your team. If not, that's okay too. Then you're drafting a player to cut him to put him on the practice squad, but that's okay too. Sometimes you want to just get a player in the building so at least you have him here. There's no right or wrong answer. I'd say one of the things that you probably noticed over the last few years, there are more late round picks that have maybe stuck on rosters than previously. I'm sure somebody ran the percentages, which I know there are a lot of analytics people out there. They probably would show some merit to that. Some positions maybe more than others, but that seems like something that's happening more over the last few years."
You mentioned that you don't want to get too caught up in perceived needs for the draft. Have you and your coaching staff discussed OL Tytus Howard's role on the team going forward, and does your projection of him factor into your decisions?
"You try to kind of separate some of that, because really once you have your team, then look at your players and say, 'Alright, how do we best utilize the player's skillset and his overall playing ability?' It doesn't necessarily factor it. Ultimately, we're going to do what's best for our team. Whether it's one position over the other, certain players feel more comfortable in other spots, some players say, 'Coach, play me wherever the hell you want. I'll do whatever the team needs me to do.' That's a great attitude, that's a great mindset. Let's get the best people on the field, let's utilize them accordingly and try not to pigeonhole yourself. 'Well, we need to do this so we can do that.' You have to be careful about doing that. Good players, good people, going to be good teammates, and if we think they're going to have a future here, that's the most important thing."
Do you and your staff do your own mock drafts for fun or as an exercise to help prepare for the draft?
"We try not to play too many fantasy draft trades. That's for you guys to do. I think what you do, kind of what I do, is you look at the teams around you and try to get an idea. If you're going to move back six spots, what's the cost associated with that? Or if we're going to move up four spots, what are you giving up in return? I think those are things you do on your own just to kind of have an overall awareness and understanding so that the first time you're talking about a trade up or down, you're not sitting on the clock with seven minutes and said team calls you and says, 'Yeah, we're interested in pick No. 37, here's what it's going to take,' and you're scrambling around going, 'Wait a minute, I haven't really thought about that. We try to do some of that now, but you really can't get too caught up in it because there's so much that can happen. I'd say trades are really player-driven anyways, so a lot of it is going to be based on what you're looking at, what teams are looking at, and ultimately the decision they're going to make is going to be what they think is the best for them."
