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Talking trade

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For a day with seemingly little to debate, this debate actually wasn't bad.

At issue on Day 2 of the jaguars.com 2012 reader mock draft was the No. 2 overall selection, and while the holders of that selection – the St. Louis Rams – have been of late talking openly of trading down, there seems little debate on who will eventually be that selection.

That would be Robert Griffin III, quarterback, Baylor.

So, instead of asking who the pick might be, on Day 2 we asked readers to figure out what team would be the best option to trade with the Rams.

The Washington Redskins? The Cleveland Browns?

A mystery team?

We opened up all the possibilities, and although most readers didn't think much of the mystery-team concept, there was one lonely comment-board voice – that of Chad Schlehr -- postulating a move up by the Dallas Cowboys.

 "There has been talk that a team outside of the top ten that you wouldn't suspect has made inquiries," Schlehr wrote. "I think Dallas is that team."

Schleher's dissension aside, most comments focused on Washington and Cleveland, with the readership largely split. Cleveland, armed with the Nos. 4 and 22 selections, garnered a lot of support and Fred Barnes called a Cleveland-St. Louis trade a "no-brainer."

"They're both sitting back having a good laugh at the Redskins who ultimately fall flat," Barnes wrote. "The Browns have gone on record saying they'll make it happen. It's a done deal. The Redskins frankly have nothing to offer."

I'm not sure the Browns have gone on the record saying as much, and I certainly don't see it as a done deal, particularly with reports being that the Browns may not be willing to include the 22nd selection in the deal.

If that's true, the Redskins have as much to give up, and if their history under owner Dan Snyder is indication, they're certainly a team willing to make off-season moves whatever the risk.

"Redskins are the choice," jagsfan22 wrote. "They need a QB so bad. Come on . . . Grossman and Beck? Synder wants a franchise QB and he will give up the most to get Griffin."

J-Mart Burkland agreed.

"Washington is the team that will trade up to get RG3," he wrote. "The owner is growing tired of losing. The defense is pretty decent and ascending. The offense is somewhere in the middle but no QB. They are a quarterback away from being playoff contenders and the Browns need the multiple picks they possess to build towards a competitive team."

Not that the mock draft was exactly dominating the readers' psyche – and some simply couldn't get the goings on in Indianapolis off of their minds enough to focus on the task at hand.

"Go Get Payton Manning!!" Hector wrote. "The tarps would probably come off!!"

Jerami Shannon, meanwhile, captured the sentiments of many.

"Mock drafts stink . . ." he wrote.

Hector's enthusiasm aside and Shannon's disinterest aside, we opted to leave the chances of Payton Manning showing up to help with tarp removal for another day, and when we returned to focusing on the reader mock we were somewhat surprised to see an option we hadn't expected.

That option? The chance that the Rams might not trade the selection after all.

"I think no one trades with St. Louis, and they draft (Southern California left tackle) Matt Kalil at the No. 2 spot," Josiah Erickson wrote. "Sam Bradford showed in his rookie season that he can play. This last season you couldn't plug anybody in at St. Louis without having them run for their life."

Not a bad theory, but the thought here is that the lure of extra picks will be too strong for the Rams, and that the slight majority of the readership will be right. When the votes were tallied, Washington was slightly more the choice than Cleveland, and because that's been the thought here for a few weeks, that's the direction we went.

That means with the second selection of the 2012 jaguars.com reader mock draft we went with Griffin to Washington, and that makes the mock so far look like this

1.Indianapolis | Andrew Luck, QB, Stanford

2.Washington | Robert Griffin III, QB, Baylor

That also brings us to the spot in the draft where things are going to get interesting. Whoever picks at No. 2, it seems Luck and Griffin are all-but locked in at the top two spots. Next on most observers' value boards is Kalil, but running back Trent Richardson of Alabama and cornerback Morris Claiborne of Louisiana State aren't far behind.

There are also reports of the Vikings trading the selection, but after No. 2, no more trades in the reader mock.

That means for the purpose of this mock draft, the Vikings are on the clock. We're throwing up Kalil as a possibility here, but we're expecting debate and this time, we expect it to have a lot of merit.

Have at it.

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