Did Minnesota Vikings GM Rick Spielman Bluff Cleveland Browns out 3 Draft Picks?

Sports Illustrated's Peter King might be the most connected NFL scribe in the business. That's how he can bring us scoops like this in his Monday Morning Quarterback Column:

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There's no way (Cleveland GM Tom) Heckert could know what real offer [Minnesota GM Rick] Spielman had on the table. Spielman, as it turned out, had talked to Tampa Bay about the pick, but the Bucs were never seriously interested in it. But Heckert had no way of knowing that at the time. General managers making vital decisions for the long-term cannot sit there and say, "I wonder if Spielman really has something, or if he's bluffing.'' They have to make decisions on the fly. The Browns kept the top five picks of a vital draft intact and got the guy they wanted, Trent Richardson, and still had 10 picks to work with. I don't castigate Heckert. I applaud him.

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My Take: I agree with King applauding Heckert's conviction. I even brought up on my Twitter feed hours before the draft that Heckert should dangle a fourth-round pick (effectively what he did) to move up one spot if he had clarity that Richardson was the pick for the Browns.

Still, you have to play the game. Chances are, the picks given up were proportional to believe in Richardson, so this is a good thing for Cleveland. I do think Heckert will think twice the next time a GM picking ahead of him in the draft threatens him with the possibility of a trade down to another team for his possible target.

Richardson is a once-every-five-years kind of prospect, a player you may never get another chance to take again. It is easy to understand how Heckert made such a strong commitment to him.

It is also easy to understand, but hard to believe how Rick Spielman was able to get extra picks by scaring Heckert with the possibility of a player that the Vikings were known to have no interest in going ahead of their pick. Spielman made a blueprint to maximize pick value for teams picking in the top five just as much as Jeff Fisher and GM Les Snead did for St. Louis this year.