Actually, it depends on your situation. Trading away picks to move up helps your starting team at the expense of your depth.
Mike Sherman was a poster boy for the former (trading up), and Ted Thompson is a poster boy for the latter (trading down for additional picks).
Sherman left us depleted--as long as our starters were healthy, we were OK, but the minute somebody got injured there was a big drop off to their replacement. It also relied on him hitting a larger percentage of his picks, since he had fewer picks overall.
Thompson's approach was exactly what we needed after Sherman. The additional picks allowed us to regain depth quicker.
But once you have good depth again, you can afford some trading up to improve your starters. Which is where Thompson has impressed me the most--he adjusted his normal approach to trade up and take CM3 because of his player evaluation, and hit a home run.
Overall, I've been impressed with Thompson--he's kept us toward the top of the NFL, got us a Super Bowl championship, and had us surviving the loss of Aaron Rodgers to make the playoffs. He's had a few misses, but that's the nature of the beast--it's going to happen.
Originally Posted by: macbob