Use draft picks for key vets in trade, not rookies

So the NFL scouting combine is starting, and you have tested out the new stopwatch app on your phone, and you have managed to laminate your list of draft eligible linebackers (so as not to smear the names, what with the persistent drooling and everything). And, well, have at it.

I'd rather spend the Eagles' first-round pick on a sure thing.

You know, like Steelers wide receiver Mike Wallace.

You are all worried about the defense, because you cannot shake the first five games of 2011 from your memory, and because the Eagles have made it pretty clear that they don't think they have any every-down linebackers on the roster (mostly because they ended up using all of them situationally last season). You don't like the linebackers, or the safeties, or the wide-nine, or defensive coordinator Juan Castillo - and you see the answers by drafting early and often on defense.

I don't see it that way.

Besides Wallace, I want Plaxico Burress, too.

The Eagles cherish their draft choices, and they are not likely to sign a restricted free agent such as Wallace and give up their first-round selection as the required compensation. But why not? In a season for coach Andy Reid that will be unlike any of his first 13 seasons - a season in which he has to win big, a season in which quarterback Michael Vick will need to be great to pull it off - loading up on proven offense makes the most sense.

Given the ongoing uncertainties about DeSean Jackson and his production, it is time to make the bold move. Let Jackson go, take the first-round pick and exchange it for Jackson's replacement, for a known quantity.

To me, Wallace is the best of the available wideouts. He is fast, very fast, in the same way that Jackson is very fast, but he also brings a smidgen more size and an extra portion of gumption. We will debate forever what has happened to Jackson, but it seems clear that the two concussions he suffered in 2010 and 2011 have been the tipping point for him, turning him from small and prudent in a crowd to unusually timid. You can throw out the attitude issues - which have been real. It is the on-field uber-caution that makes any long-term signing a bad idea.

Wallace is a better version of Jackson. He will stretch the field and command coverage when the safeties are not playing in deepest centerfield. He makes catches Jackson does not make. He is still young, only a couple of months older than Jackson. If the Eagles can get past the idea of the first-round compensation, they will be bringing in a certainty - or as much as there is such a thing.

But they still need Burress, too.

The red-zone conversation now dominates in the NFL. It is talk that cuts a lot of different ways. It still seems that the most important thing is how often you get to the red zone, not necessarily how often you convert touchdowns in the red zone - and with 66 trips last season, the Eagles trailed only New Orleans (75) and New England (72). They were tied with Green Bay.

Still, the Eagles' touchdown-conversion rate was an altogether pedestrian 51.5 percent, 14th in the NFL. Of the aforementioned teams, New England was 65.3 percent, Green Bay was 65.2 percent and New Orleans was 58.7 percent. Over the course of last season, if the Eagles had converted in the same way the Patriots had, they would have traded nine field goals for touchdowns.

And, as a certain head coach once said, we can all count.

If you were to add Wallace, you would be adding more of a red-zone target than Jackson was. (Wallace: 12 red-zone targets, six receptions, three touchdowns in 2011. Jackson: eight targets, two receptions, one touchdown.) You would be getting another Jeremy Maclin in the red zone (11 targets, eight receptions, four touchdowns), and that is a nice addition. It might even be enough.

But in a hugely important season for the head coach, and therefore for the franchise, this is not a season where "might even be enough" is the way to go.

Burress isn't fast anymore, but he is still the kind of big target Vick will find inviting. Last year with the Jets, Burress was targeted 21 times in the red zone, with 10 receptions and seven touchdowns. This is real and meaningful production, even if everyone would have to recognize that Burress would be an expensive specialist here if Wallace and Maclin were starting. "Everyone" includes Burress, by the way. He would need to be convinced about this somewhat limited role.

So while you are dreaming about drafting linebackers, and quietly dreading the notion of another undersized pass rusher, just know that wide receiver is an area the Eagles can fix quickly, and decisively, with a first-round pick and a bunch of money - and if the reports are correct, they have gobs of money left under the salary cap.

And while it does go against their normal philosophy, it might be good for everybody to recognize that these are not normal times - not for Andy Reid, or Michael Vick, or anyone on the Eagles.

Send email to hofmanr@phillynews.com,

or read his blog, The Idle Rich, at www.philly.com/TheIdleRich.