2012 NFL Draft Predictions: 7 Surprise Teams That Could Trade Up for RGIII

As the calendar turns from February to March, a perfect storm comes together in the NFL offseason making this time of year ripe with rumors that stretch to every corner of the league.

With the NFL combine complete, free agency less than two weeks away and the NFL draft lingering off in the distance, this is the time of year when speculation about the direction of every franchise runs rampant.

This year's offseason has a little more interest than most because of the growing spectacle of Robert Griffin III.  

The Heisman Trophy winner just put on an absolute show at the combine, and in an era where it looks like the league is moving towards more mobile quarterbacks, Griffin could be the best athlete at the position as early as next season.  

Couple that with the fact that the St. Louis Rams have begun the bidding for their No. 2 overall and the right to draft Griffin, and the internet is ablaze as it would seem that every NFL team is in play for Griffin.

The truth of the matter is that when the smoke clears, the Cleveland Browns, Washington Redskins, Miami Dolphins and Seattle Seahawks are most likely going to be the teams in the final bidding war for Griffin's services.

However, the rumor mill was turned on its ear last week when Sports Illustrated's Peter King reported a mystery team "that you would never expect" approached the Rams about their pick.

By the end of the day, blogs, forums and just about anyone with an internet voice was making a case on why their hometown team could be the mystery team involved in the Griffin sweepstakes.

If Griffin landed on any team outside of the four mentioned above, it would be a shocking development.

Here's a breakdown of seven teams that could be the mystery team that nobody would ever expect.

Dallas Cowboys

Tony Romo is one of the more polarizing figures in the NFL and rightly so.

Whether you like him or not, in the regular season Romo is firmly entrenched in the second-tier of quarterbacks, just behind the elite group of Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Tom Brady and yes, Eli Manning.  

Not counting the 2010 season in which he played just six games, Romo has thrown for 4,000 yards in three of his past four full seasons and topped 25 touchdowns in each of those years as well.  He has thrown just 19 interceptions over his past two full seasons and has a career quarterback rating of 96.9, which incredibly ranks 2nd all-time.

Sounds like a franchise quarterback to me.

However, his critics are quick to point out Romo's lack of postseason success.

While the regular season numbers are nice, nothing satisfies Jerry Jones and the Cowboy faithful except Lombardi Trophies, and it's been 17 years since one has been lifted by Dallas.

Romo will be 32 years old by the time the NFL season opens in 2012 and has a career playoff record of just 1-3.  So, yes, Eli Manning has more Super Bowl wins than Romo has playoff wins and he is one year younger.  

If you think that Jones doesn't realize that, you are kidding yourself.

Publicly, Jones has always been supportive of Romo and has flat out said that Romo is better than Luck and Griffin.

But how long can that support last?  He has surrounded Romo with offensive weapons year after year and hasn't had the postseason success he should have.

That could cause Jones to do something drastic, like trade up for Griffin.

The only way this could get done is if Romo is involved in the trade package.  The Cowboys have seven picks in this year's draft, all located in the middle of each respective round.

The Cowboys would have to get creative and make this deal into a three-team trade.  They can unload Romo onto any number of willing teams and then flip those draft picks over to the Rams for their choice, while probably throwing in a couple of their own.  

It is a steep price to pay and quite a gamble, but when does anyone count out Jones when it comes to taking a gamble?  

Throw in the fact that Griffin is a Texas native and this move would unite the fanbase in support of a Dallas quarterback for the first time since Troy Aikman delivered the last Lombardi Trophy to Dallas.

Kansas City Chiefs

The Kansas City Chiefs may have been a surprise team before the combine, but after publicly confirming that Griffin was one of 60 players they interviewed during the week-long showcase, the cat is out of the bag.

Scott Pioli has a real interest in Griffin.

Matt Cassel and Kyle Orton are above-average-at-best NFL quarterbacks, but neither will ever be mistaken for a cornerstone player.  Griffin, on the other hand, has that potential.

The Chiefs have explosive potential on their offense with Dwayne Bowe, Jamaal Charles and Dexter McCluster and if Griffin was added into that mix, it would create matchup nightmares across the board for opposing defenses.  

The Chiefs have the 11th pick in this year's draft; a good starting point for a potential deal.  They have seven picks in this year's draft as well, so trading a couple of picks away wouldn't cripple the franchise by any means.

The catch will be whether the Chiefs would be willing to trade away their first and possibly second-round picks in next year's draft as well.

The Chiefs all-time passing leader is still Len Dawson, who was picked No. 5 overall in the 1957 NFL draft and played for the Chiefs in the AFL before the merger.

For a team that has been screaming out for a franchise quarterback for four decades, it seems that no price is too steep to pay.

Philadelphia Eagles

The Browns may have the best trading chips of anyone int he draft with two first-round picks and top five picks in every other round, but the Philadelphia Eagles are close behind.

The Eagles have an NFL-high 10 picks in this year's draft and can easily trade away four or five of them without it effecting them one bit.  That could be an attractive deal to the Rams who have numerous holes and only six picks in this year's draft.  

The Eagles don't necessarily have a pressing need at quarterback, but with Michael Vick's style of play, the Eagles are closer to having Mike Kafka as their starter than most would care to acknowledge.

Vick has played 16 games in a season just once (2006) and will be 32 years old by the time the 2012 season starts.  

The Eagles have a ton of talent on their roster and are generally competitive every season.  That usually keeps them picking in the bottom of the first round of the draft every year.

With their multitude of picks this year, they might not have an opportunity to trade up and grab another franchise quarterback like this again anytime soon.

Minnesota Vikings

Normally teams swapping between the second and third draft slots is not a surprise at all.  If it happened this year though, it would be borderline shocking.

The Minnesota Vikings present an interesting case as the surprise team in the Griffin sweepstakes because of the simple fact that they drafted Christian Ponder in the first round last year and started him in 11 games in 2011.

The Vikings wouldn't be in the discussion if it wasn't for the fact that they pick just one slot lower than the Rams.  

For this to happen, the Vikings would have to harbor serious doubts about Ponder's future and the Rams would have to accept quality instead of quantity in their return.

The Vikings would likely have to trade their first and second-round picks this year and a possible high pick next year, just to move up one spot.  

That would give the Rams three picks in the top 35 this year and very likely two top 10 picks next year, all just to move down one spot and pick the same person they would have picked at No. 2 anyway.  

Arizona Cardinals

For a team that has had 14 starting quarterbacks in the 24 years since Neil Lomax retired (including one in which punter Tom Tupa started 11 games behind center), you'd figure there would be more more rumors linking the Arizona Cardinals to Griffin.

But there has barely been a whisper.

With a current quarterback duo of Kevin Kolb and John Skelton, the Cardinals are going nowhere fast.  Even if they received stellar play from the other units on the squad, the best the Cardinals could hope for with those two is a little better than mediocre.

What makes the lack of Griffin-to-the-Cards rumors more odd are the plentiful rumors linking the Cardinals to Peyton Manning.  

You'd have to figure if the Cardinals are interested in Manning, they would have to at least be sniffing around Griffin as well.  

The Cardinals pick 13th in the first round this year but do not have a second-round pick, so the Rams would have to be willing to wait another year before cashing in during the draft if they traded with the Cardinals.  

With the amount of picks teams will be throwing at the Rams, the Cardinals would have to overwhelm them with what could amount to two picks this year and three or four next year.

Baltimore Ravens

Before their horrendous loss to the New England Patriots in the 2011 AFC championship game, Joe Flacco was walking around Baltimore with a giant bullseye target on his back.

His play in the postseason, and at times in the regular season, has caused the Baltimore Ravens to question whether he has taken the team as far as he ever will.

Even after a fine performance in the AFC championship game, in which he threw for 306 yards and two touchdowns in a loss to the Patriots, Flacco's abilities will continue to be under fire in 2012.

Flacco takes an amazing amount of heat for a quarterback whose career record is 44-20, but when you have an elite defense riddled with Hall of Famers on the other side of the ball, your record better be that good.  

Flacco seemed to have taken a step back in 2011 when he ended the season with a quarterback rating of just 80.9, virtually the same rating as his rookie year.

Despite starting every game since 2008, Flacco hasn't progressed much over the years.  In fact, his years have been so similar that his passing yardage totals over the past three seasons ended within 12 yards of each other.

The only way the Ravens would start over with Griffin is if they feel like they have hit their ceiling with Flacco at the helm; and is that too far fetched an idea?

Due to their past and projected success, the Ravens typically pick at the bottom of the draft.  Because of that, they would really need to sweeten the pot if they wanted to chase Griffin.

If they really wanted to make this happen, the Ravens would probably have to trade Flacco for draft picks, flip them to the Rams and possibly even include one of their young stars on defense in a deal with the Rams.

New York Jets

Whispers arose last week when the National Football Authority published a report that the New York Jets have inquired about a possible trade with the Rams for the right to draft Griffin.

Original reports said the Jets were unable to match the Rams expectations for the pick, but if they did actually make an offer, it could have just been a feeler to see what it would take.  

If we have learned anything from the Woody Johnson/Mike Tannenbaum tandem, it's that you can never discount any crazy rumors.

Tannenbaum makes bold moves in the draft on a near-regular basis and coming off a such a disastrous season, it wouldn't surprise anyone if the franchise made drastic changes.

The Jets drafted Mark Sanchez, Darrelle Revis and Dustin Keller among others using draft picks acquired through trades and a success rate like that surely will have Tannenbaum eager to continue to deal.

While the rumors have been unsubstantiated, you have to figure the Jets are in the market for a franchise quarterback.  The two hottest quarterback rumors on the market have been involving Griffin and Peyton Manning and the Jets have been linked to both.

Tannenbaum has done nothing to dispel any of the rumors.

Another positive side effect of a trade up to snatch Griffin would mean that the Jets could also free up some cap room in the deal.  

According to www.nyjetscap.com, Sanchez currently has the highest cap hit for anyone on the roster at $14,253.  A trade of Sanchez would free up so much money that the Jets could address numerous positional needs across the roster.

Even if the team wasn't able to trade Sanchez and they released him, his cap hit would be just over $5 million in 2012 for a savings of about $9 million.

When it comes to the Jets, anything is possible.