Faces And Sketches (This Changes Everything)

Two trades significantly reordered the first round of this year’s NFL draft, one at the top, one near the bottom. Two teams both shot up a dozen or more selections, surrendering a considerable cost in draft picks and/or players, to take their man. The two targets both hailed from USC.

And, in the seasons to come, these two trades could go a long way to defining the 2009 draft, for better or worse. They most certainly will define the fortunes of two teams.

I am, of course, talking about the New York Jets trading up for quarterback Mark Sanchez and the Green Bay Packers for linebacker Clay Matthews III.

There are plenty of differences between the two trades. Sanchez keys the offensive identity of a defensive-minded team. Matthews, along fellow first-round selection BJ Raji, the defensive identity of an offensive team. Sanchez is the new face of a franchise. Matthews is one step in recovery from once surrendering too much of the franchise to a single face. Sanchez is bound for the media epicenter that is New York. Matthews the cultural backwater that is Green Bay.

But the trades and selections for Sanchez and Matthews represent a break from the past for the Jets and the Packers, two teams, once bound, in differing degrees, to the fortunes of Brett Favre.

In the case of the Jets, it’s a final clean break from the Eric Mangini era. And it’s not just ridding the roster of a few Mangini favorites – Kenyon Coleman, Abram Elam, and Bret Ratliff – rather it’s about putting faith in talent and hoping to construct a system around that.

Fitting then that Jets traded up with Mangini’s new team to accomplish this sea change. As the Cleveland Browns continued to backpedal through the round, the Jets sprinted forward. Just as they targeted key free agent Bart Scott and disgruntled Lito Sheppard in trade, GM Mike Tannenbaum and new coach Rex Ryan set their sights on Sanchez as a cornerstone to build the new Jets around.

Mangini brought system and desperation. Ryan brings flexibility and aggression. I’m not saying one is objectively better than the other. Each have their applications. But for a team that folded so miserably down the stretch last year the change is likely welcome.

Matthews, on the other hand, now a Packer isn’t the reflection of a new regime. However, his presence does indicate a minor revolution of sorts. And it’s not just the team’s shift from the base 4-3 defense to a 3-4 taught by new coach, former Blitzburgh coordinator Dom Capers.

Yes, the scheme shift and this ensuing draft are incredibly important for Green Bay. Matthews and Raji keep the Packers from fitting too many square pegs into round holes (though we’re all stuck with the potentially awkward, potentially amazing drama of Aaron Kampman’s transition to rush linebacker).

But the Packers eschewed their patient approach to roster building in the confident trade-up to snag Matthews. GM Ted Thompson has employed a strategy of trading down again and again to amass picks and improve his chances statistically to hit on his selections. A draft by volume approach.

By trading away their one second- and both third-round selections to the Patriots, the Packers claimed an assurity not just in the skills of Matthews and Raji to toughen a defensive front seven pushed around too much to compete in the NFC North but also in the strength of their roster built by trading down through the course of four prior drafts.

And that’s another thing both trades share, a certain boldness, a certain swagger. Perhaps not new to the likes of big talking Rex Ryan, perhaps more so to the buttoned-up Ted Thompson.

Most importantly, though, regardless of how Sanchez and Matthews pan out, they signal new territory for their respective teams.