I took this team over in February when the previous owner left the league. The team won ONE game last year...and I really don't know how it even did that. This team was devoid of talent. So it's a full blown rebuild. At the time I took over, the only players that had serious value were Cutler, McGahee, Chad Johnson, Greg Olsen, and Patrick Willis. 15-20 players were barely rosterable. I did have 5 first round picks to start with. Obviously, I have my work cut out for me in a league of this caliber. I made a few deals before the draft. These are the significant ones:Trade #1:I traded: RB Willis McGahee, 2008 pick 1.10, 2008 pick 1.12Faletti traded: RB Brandon Jacobs, WR Dwayne Bowe, LB Thomas HowardI was elated to get a young WR like Bowe, although I took a fairly steep hit at RB. I didn't mind moving the picks since I got 3 proven players in the deal. I was very happy with the result of this trade, as I added some badly needed young talent.Trade #2:I traded: WR Chad Johnson, LB Patrick Willis, 2008 picks 1.07, 2.07, 4.11, 5.15Bachman traded: WR Larry Fitzgerald, DE Mario Williams, LB Adalius Thomas, 2008 picks 2.14, 4.01This was a deal that took a lot of time to finalize. Bachman really wanted Willis and that is how this trade started. It ended with me trading quite a bit to land Fitzgerald. While I think Chad is an elite WR, he is 30 years old. That isn't old now, but this team is not good and by the time it is, Chad will not have a lot of trade value, so I decided to look two years from now and like my end of the deal. Willis was very tough to part with. Elite LBs are not easy to find, but I think elite DEs like Mario Williams are even harder to find. Basically, it cost me the difference between Willis/1.07 and Mario to go from Chad to Fitz. Looking long-term, this deal made sense for me. After two deals, I have two stud WRs under 25 years old. Trade #3:I traded: LB Thomas Howard, S Ken Hamlin, 2008 pick 4.01Rodriguez traded: LB Anthony Waters, 2008 pick 1.15This was basically Howard for the 1.15, with some pieces added. I wanted to get into the first round to add some offensive talent. I can get a LB2 type like Howard once my team is better, and I felt the pick was more valuable to my rebuild.So as I enter the draft, I have the 1.01, 1.05, 1.15, 2.14 and 3.07 to work with. I have Cutler at QB, Jacobs at RB, Fitz and Bowe at WR, Olsen at TE, and Mario Williams at DE. That is the core that I will build around. The draft picks will follow in a later post. I just wanted to update the major trades I made since I took the team over.