The 2011 NFL Draft is just a couple of days away and not surprisingly we are starting to see rumors about teams making trades. As a reminder, due to the on-going labor dispute between the billionaire owners and the poor, deprived players there won't be any trades involving players. There will however, be trades involving picks and one of the first rumors we see about such a deal involves the Arizona Cardinals and the Dallas Cowboys.
SB Nation's mock draft experts believe that the Cowboys will swap their ninth pick with the Cardinals and move up to draft CB Patrick Peterson. The Cardinals would get both the Cowboys ninth pick along with their second-round pick which is the 40th overall. The Cowboys get the Cardinals 2012 third-round pick in this scenario as well.
With the ninth pick, this mock draft has Cardinals taking OT Tyron Smith from USC.
After moving down from No. 5, the Cardinals missed out on quality at the rush linebacker position, but can address that area with one of their two second-round picks. Smith is a potentially elite left tackle prospect, and OT is a really underrated need for the Cardinals.
There's no question that the offensive line is a need for the Cardinals and there's a certain appeal to this trade rumor. We'll find out Thursday what actually happens.
The first round of the 2011 NFL Draft starts at 5 p.m. (AZT) on Thursday, April 28, and SB Nation has everything you need to prepare: NFL mock drafts, draft projections, scouting reports, the full NFL draft schedule and more. Check it out at SB Nation's NFL Draft page and our NFL Draft blog, Mocking the Draft or for Cardinals coverage, visit Revenge of the Birds.