I’ve never heard that Polian could have gotten more for Faulk.
Other teams – such as the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals and New England Patriots – were interested. The problem was that all of them were competing with the Colts in the American Football Conference. Polian took the old “Don’t trade within the division” principle, which applied to the Dolphins since the Colts resided in the AFC East in 1999, and applied it to the entire conference.
In the days leading up to the 1999 NFL draft, Miami was on a mission to get a running back. The Dolphins were trying anything possible to move up from No. 24 overall to land University of Miami running back Edgerrin James(notes), who ended up going No. 4 to the Colts.
Instead of Peterson, Indy could have had Al Wilson, a five time Pro Bowler. However, they would have almost assuredly lost the division to Miami in 1999. They lost to the Dolphins in the 2000 playoffs. This is one of the rare cases where taking less was probably taking more.
The bigger question is why Polian didn’t just pay Faulk and then trade the 4th pick to New Orleans for a king’s ransom, then taking Champ Bailey.
Sigh. Indy did ok in the exchange, but I think Faulk would have been incredible with Manning.
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