In This Year’s Draft Game, Arizona Holds All the Cards

When it’s time to make the second selection in the first round of the April draft, Arizona Cardinals Owner Bill Bidwill will cast a pebble. It will cause ripples through the next nine picks, and perhaps through the entire first round. No team is in a position to affect so many other teams with its draft-day decision.

The Cardinals are the only team with a top four pick willing to trade down. And this draft, remember, drops off quickly after Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning, Washington State quarterback Ryan Leaf, Florida State defensive end Andre Wadsworth and Michigan cornerback Charles Woodson.

Manning is expected to be selected first, by the Indianapolis Colts, leaving Leaf, the only other highly coveted quarterback prospect, to be fought over like the last biscuit at a kennel. The Cardinals don’t have much use for Leaf because they believe they are set at quarterback with second-year man Jake Plummer.

Meanwhile, many teams believe Wadsworth is the best player in the ’98 draft and are willing to give up their souls, if not their entire stock of draft picks, to get him.

At least five teams who have top 10 picks--San Diego, Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans and Baltimore--have talked trade with the Cardinals. The Jacksonville Jaguars, who own the ninth and 25th selections in the first round, and the Cincinnati Bengals, who own the 13th and 17th selections, also could become players.

But the second pick won’t change hands cheaply or quickly. The Cardinals already have turned down an offer from the Ravens, made before Baltimore’s acquisition of Jim Harbaugh, that would have given Arizona the 10th overall pick this year, the Ravens’ first-round pick next year and a second-round pick either this year or next year. The Cardinals would like to ride this out with the hope that a team gets desperate on draft day.

But Bidwill, who will make the final decision after consultation with coach Vince Tobin, vice president Bob Ferguson and assistant to the president Rod Graves, has a reputation for deliberating his choices until they evaporate.

With the Ravens now out of the equation, these are the Cardinals’ remaining options:

* Move down one spot in a deal with the San Diego Chargers. This is the smartest way to go, because it would enable the Cardinals to draft the best non-quarterback available (Wadsworth) and still acquire another pick or player. While they don’t really need Wadsworth, they would love to have him. Imagine a defensive line including Wadsworth, Eric Swann and Simeon Rice. The Cardinals have.

Typically, a team will give up a second-round choice to move up one spot. But the Cardinals want more than that, and Chargers General Manager Bobby Beathard is reluctant to part with his second-round pick (the 32nd overall) because he doesn’t have a third- or fourth-round selection. Ideally, Beathard would like to give the Cardinals a pick from next year’s draft to move up. He might even be open to giving up a first-round choice in 1999 if the Cardinals gave back another draft pick in the deal.

* Move down three spots in a swap with the Chicago Bears. The only way this makes sense is if the Cardinals don’t sign a free-agent running back such as Ricky Watters, because the fifth pick is where Penn State running back Curtis Enis is expected to go. The Cardinals aren’t overly excited about Enis; they liked Ricky Williams better, but he elected to return to Texas. As it stands now, running back is the Cardinals’ greatest need, and Enis is the best back on the board.

With many needs, the Bears appear at least as interested in trading down to acquire multiple picks as they are in trading up with the Cardinals and giving up extra picks. The Cardinals are open to trading the pick for a combination of draft choices and players, but the Bears don’t have much of value to offer. Though the Bears could use Leaf, they are gaga over Wadsworth.

* Move down four or five spots in a trade with the St. Louis Rams or New Orleans Saints. Trading down this far probably would result in the Cardinals settling for offensive tackle Tra Thomas, who would fill a major need.

Thomas is the highest-rated offensive lineman in the draft. The Rams established the price for jumping up five spots in the draft last year, when they gave up their sixth overall pick, a third-round pick, a fourth-round pick and a seventh-round pick to the New York Jets for the first overall pick, which they used to select offensive tackle Orlando Pace. They could put together a similar package this year and select Wadsworth, the defensive equivalent of Pace.

Though the Saints have multiple needs, they are willing to package picks for a shot at Leaf.

* Trade down repeatedly for a warehouse full of draft picks. The Cardinals could trade with the Chargers for the third pick, then with the Bears for the fifth pick, then with the Jaguars for the ninth pick, then with the . . . you get the idea. All the while, they would be picking up extra picks in rounds two, three and beyond, or perhaps players plus picks.

The advantage in this strategy is financial. It would get the Cardinals off the hook for paying a huge signing bonus, perhaps $10 million, to the second player chosen. And this is a consideration for the Cardinals.

If the Cardinals go this route, they could rationalize it by saying such movement will net them four or five quality starters. It is a strategy that served the Dallas Cowboys well earlier this decade. Then again, those Cowboys already had superstars to build around.

* Stay put. If the Cardinals can’t pull the trigger on a trade, they could just draft Wadsworth. The only way they would draft Leaf is if they knew they could trade him after picking him.

Any option they choose, however, will open doors for some teams and close doors for others.