Louisville football: Making a trade for one non-QB in college football

The past week’s headlines in the NFL have been littered with members of the media frantically searching for a trade destination for former Clemson and now NFL star quarterback Deshaun Watson who apparently wants out of Houston.

But what if we could do the same thing in college football? What if Louisville football could make one trade for one player to try and improve the team as much as possible? Perhaps, in a normal world, they would dive head first for the idea of trading for a quarterback. Makes sense.

In this exercise we’re going to take that idea right out of the equation and force Louisville to pick any position that is not a quarterback. Don’t fret. There is still literally every player in the nation available to us.

There is not really much of a “trade” here. This is a world where Louisville doesn’t send any sort of compensation in return for the player they trade for. Think of this exercise as more of the Cardinals plucking one player from any team in the country.

The rules

• Any player can be taken that will be on an NCAA team in 2021.
• The player traded for is assumed to have the proper amount of years left to fulfill eligibility and compete for Louisville OR otherwise enter the draft after three seasons in college (assumed good enough to do so).

Narrowing down the trade targets

So – funny thing – there is actually a lot of options for Louisville who could realistically upgrade any position on the team. So we need to evaluate the biggest areas of weakness and narrow down our trade targets from there.

WR Chris Olave – Ohio State, 4JR

The junior had over 700 yards and 7 touchdowns in only seven contests in 2020. He is regarded as one of the most dangerous deep threats in all of college football. After losing deep threats Tutu Atwell and Dez Fitzpatrick to the NFL Draft, Olave would be the perfect piece to put into this offense to help Malik Cunningham push the ball down the field.

The only problem here is that Olave is a virtual lock to enter the draft after just one season so his services would be just a rental in 2021 due to entering his fourth year of college already. Of course, the upside is that he is proven as an established receiver in college football.

He will likely be a 2022 first round pick, but he would put up absolutely bonkers numbers in the Louisville offense to solidify his place. If the Cardinals want a rental, this is who I’m going for.