Champ Bailey Resigns With Broncos: 2011 NFL Draft, Patrick Peterson Implications

There was some rare signing news yesterday as the Denver Broncos agreed to terms with all-world cornerback Champ Bailey on a new four year contract. Broncos fans are quite pumped given how important Bailey is to that team. He's getting up there in age but he is still performing at an impressive level. Now that this deal is done, the question becomes what the implications are for the 2011 NFL Draft. Thanks to mikeinsp for his FanShot and navdeep for his FanPost discussing the topic. I wanted to get some front page discussion going, so let's have at it.

It seems like Broncos fans have been all over the place as to what would happen with Bailey. Had he left, it very well might have locked them into selecting Patrick Peterson with the second overall pick. The re-signing of Champ Bailey doesn't guarantee they won't select Peterson at number two, but it does give them some wiggle room to look elsewhere. There appear to be a decent number of talented cornerbacks in the 2011 NFL Draft, so it's entirely possibly they use the number two pick elsewhere, whether it be along their defensive line or elsewhere.

Bailey has indicated at times that he would consider a move to safety to prolong his career, but it's my general understanding that would be a little further down the road. However, that could still leave them in need of a second cornerback as a long term answer. And, of course, there is always the trade-down option. Trades can be fairly unpredictable heading into the draft and given the little clump of top talent, someone moving up into the top five picks to grab a Patrick Peterson wouldn't exactly shock me.

There was some discussion in other threads about this topic, but I figured I'd pull it out here and open up the discussion: what do you think the re-signing of Champ Bailey means for the top of the draft board generally and Patrick Peterson specifically.