Paden on the Pickens trade: the Dragons are rebuilding from the front

For two days the George Pickens trade was two lines of agate and a lot of guessing. On Sunday night, after the Dragons' game at the Annihilators, Jon Paden filled in the rest himself.

"We've been short on the defensive line since Week 4 and we went and addressed it," the Dragons owner told me, on the record.

That is the whole trade in one sentence, and it is the sentence I have been waiting for since Friday, when the Dragons sent Pickens, a starting receiver, to the Wild Cards for David Bailey, a young defensive lineman promoted from the Wild Cards' practice squad earlier this month. On paper it looked like a team giving up a sure thing for a maybe. Paden doesn't see it that way.

"David Bailey is a young pass rusher whose role has grown every week, and he fits where this club is going now and in the years ahead," he said. "What we expect from David is pressure and growth. One game in, he's just getting started."

He was gracious about the player going the other way. "George Pickens is a very good receiver and I wish him well with the Wild Cards," Paden said, adding that Wild Cards owner Tony Lai "dealt with us straight."

The front, in the owner's words

On Tuesday I wrote that the defense was the story of this team, and I said plainly that it was my opinion. The Dragons went into Sunday at 2-4 having allowed 758.3 points, more than anyone in the league. I was guessing at the club's thinking then. I don't have to guess now.

"If you're asking where points have gone missing, it's the defensive line," Paden said. "The linebackers and Jessie Bates have carried the defense, and Fred Warner, Bobby Okereke and Jessie did it again today. I want the front to make their job easier, and that's a work in progress, not a one-week fix. We'd rather fix it than talk about it."

That is an owner saying, in plain words, that the back of his defense has been covering for the front of it. It is also an owner who knows one trade for a young pass rusher does not settle that.

The Okereke answer

That same Tuesday I stood at practice and watched Bobby Okereke take first-team work at the flex spot ahead of Jamien Sherwood. I wrote that I didn't know why, and that a Tuesday look is a Tuesday look. Now I have the owner's answer.

"Okereke's flex reps were deliberate; he earned the look," Paden said. "Sherwood did nothing wrong."

I said at the time this wasn't a demotion story. It's nice to have company.

What the trade costs

Here is my take. The trade makes more sense to me than it did on Friday, but it isn't free, and the bill comes due at receiver.

Paden said as much about the offense. "Drake London and Brock Bowers did their jobs, and we have to get more out of the second receiver spot," he said. That second spot was Pickens's. The obvious candidate to fill it is A.J. Brown, who Paden says is healthy and "in our receiver rotation." He said Brown had ten targets in his first game back, and "catches follow targets."

That, to me, is the real bet inside this deal. Not only that Bailey grows into a pass rusher, but that Brown becomes the receiver Pickens was. If both happen, the Dragons will have traded a strength they could spare for a need they couldn't. If Brown doesn't get there, they will have moved the hole rather than filled it.

Paden credited the backfield, too. With James Cook III's Buffalo team on its bye, Paden said Quinshon Judkins and Rhamondre Stevenson "were terrific" and "carried the backfield."

A scene, and its ending

On the morning of Oct. 20 I saw the agent for running back Jaleel McLaughlin at the facility with Dragons staff, and I reported it as a scene, not a signing, because that is all I had. McLaughlin signed with the Dragons later that morning. Paden has now closed the loop: "Jaleel McLaughlin's agent was there because Jaleel signed with us, one year." Sometimes a visit is just a visit. This time it was paperwork with a parking pass.

The quarterback room

Paden was just as direct about the position everyone asks about. "Tyler Shough is our quarterback. He earned the job, Tanner McKee is behind him, and we're not out shopping for a quarterback," he said. Jalen Hurts remains on injured reserve, and Paden said his health comes first.

I've called McKee cover, not a challenger. The owner just said the same thing with fewer adjectives.

What I'm watching

The Dragons visit the Inexperienced Blitz next Sunday. This week I'll be at practice watching the front: where Bailey lines up, how often he's with the first group, and whether Jonathan Allen is still beside Donovan Ezeiruaku. Paden has told me what he wants the defensive line to become. Practice is where I'll find out how far along it is.