Price of Barron, Likelihood of Smith Going Late 1st Drove SD to Brandon Taylor

One of the best parts of the week after the draft is hearing how GMs put together the master plan for the draft: how they gauged the value, the likely pick range of certain players, and formulating a plan to land they player they wanted at the price they were willing to pay.

San Diego Chargers GM, AJ Smith, recently shared the thoughts behind his "game plan" with CBS Clark Judge, and they included a course of action at safety that was different than most expected.

Many speculated AJ Smith would either trade up for Mark Barron or trade back for Harrison Smith, but he was having none of it: 

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"I wouldn't pay the price for Barron, and I felt Smith would be gone at the end of the first. And, if he didn't, he would be at the top of the second, and you'd have to go up to the second and pay a price to participate in that."

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Instead, they zeroed in on LSU safety Brandon Taylor.

Smith praised his run support, competitiveness, football smarts, and aggressiveness. The Chargers didn't pick until the middle of the third, so Smith wasn't just going to just hope Taylor fell to them. He started targeting a trade up in the early third, but Smith said the price was too steep. Finally, the Dolphins agreed to let the Chargers move up five spots for a 2012 sixth (that ended up becoming WR BJ Cunningham), and Taylor was on his way to San Diego.

Strong safety has been a revolving door in San Diego since the days of Rodney Harrison. AJ Smith had a plan to stop the spinning this year, and he saw it through.

Now, he waits to see if he finally got it right this time.