Why don’t teams “protect” future picks in trades?

[JoJoBoxer]

True and it's because other teams will expedite that trade to guarantee the acquisition. You do see early players traded but it's because there was a basic agreement in place and the other team makes picks in the spots for the trade partner. It would be very unusual but stuff happens and you need to be ready. You would expect a bidding war for either of the top 2 prospects so like you said, very unlikely.

Both of the trades I mentioned were not expedited. They happened on the fly. Acorsi from the Giants could not get anything done while the Chargers were on the clock, so he had to take a chance and draft Rivers with the hope that the trade would come through, seeing the Chargers really liked Rivers in the senior bowl practices where the Chargers were the coaching staff on the side with Rivers.

It is all interesting thoughts, but chances are the Bears are going to be drafting in the middle of the 1st round if they happen to win 2 games.