I was always ok with them trading up to get someone because when you think about it the cost is small at that particular juncture in time. Every pick no matter where they are taken is essentially a 50/50 toss up so if you are sure you know the potential draftee isn't going to make it back to you next round then pulling the trigger for some future 50/50 draft selection is not too terribly steep.
However, when you look at our hit rate on guys we traded up to get its plain as day; trading up isn't working for us. We are missing on picks and compounding the problem by having less picks because we traded up.
The 2020 draft is a perfect example and long enough ago to have a tangible impact we can see. We ended up with:
Round 1 • Pick 24 (24) • Center/Guard • Cesar Ruiz
Round 3 • Pick 10 (74) • Outside Linebacker • Zack Baun
Round 3 • Pick 41 (105) • Tight End • Adam Trautman
Round 7 • Pick 26 (240) • Tight End • Tommy Stevens
To get Baun we trade up 14 selections which costs us our 3rd round pick (#88), a 2021 3rd round selection and a 7th round pick.
To get Trautman we trade back into the 3rd round which essentially was a move up of 25 selections for a cost of our 4th round pick, our 6th round pick and both of the 7th round selections we had.
To get Stevens in the 7th round (the 6th to last pick of the entire draft) we traded away our 2021 6th round draft pick.
Zack Baun isn't with the team anymore and is lighting it up for Philly and Trautman is an ok TE also not with the team anymore but Denver's starting TE and Tommy Stevens is out of the NFL playing in Canada. All 3 guys were decent-ish picks taken at about where they should have went ... but to get 3 guys the total cost to us was 5 additional guys.
Think about that for a moment to get 3 players in a draft where each pick/player is a 50/50 shot in the dark we gave up 5 additional players we could have drafted, who knows what that could have turned into.
The moves sting worse when we take 3 1/2 years to develop Baun who blossoms at the end of his last year here but because we are forever cash strapped we can't keep him so now we get to watch him light it up in Philly. Trautman never really could take a step in his development but the trade for him alone cost us 3 of the 5 missing players. Stevens doesn't really matter outside of the fact that if we had our 2021 6th round pick who knows we could have picked a guy like say Isaiah McDuffie who has blossomed into a nice LB for the Packers.