For the second straight year, Phil Savage has traded away a future pick to load up on draft day. This time, he did it twice. He sent next year’s third-rounder for Dallas’ mid-fourth, used on Missouri TE Martin Rucker. Then, he reacquired the sixth-rounder sent to Philly for Hank Fraley by giving them next-year’s fifth. With that, he drafted Wisconsin receiver Paul Hubbard.

To some, this might seem like mortgaging the future a little bit. That’s exactly what it is: paying a future premium for something you couldn’t otherwise acquire today. Happens all the time when people buy houses.

Maybe it’s the wrong economy for such an analogy, but I’ll risk it. These moves can be useful, wise even, if a) they finance assets that don’t depreciate, or at least not too quickly, and b) the price paid — the interest rate, if you will — is not too high.

Last year, the gambit was for Brady Quinn. It’s still too soon to know what value he’ll ultimately provide, but there’s no reason to think any less of him as a QB prospect now than when he was drafted. And since the Browns went 10-6, the first-round pick Dallas got as part of the trade was much less valuable than most thought it would be. So it seems like a good deal.

This year, the measures will be whether a) Rucker and Hubbard at least make the 53-man roster, and b) the Browns make the playoffs and thus drive down the value of the 2009 picks they surrendered.

Part of me suspects that since so much work goes into draft preparations, Savage was exceedingly willing to extend himself in order to achieve more immediate outcomes, i.e. land more quality players. But players are not outcomes in themselves; they are instruments toward winning.

If these young offensive weapons help the team in ’08 and beyond, it will be worth it.

Rucker’s case is easier to defend at first glance. Winslow’s career longevity is far from assured. Heiden just had back surgery and is already 31. So is third-stringer Dinkins. The highly-productive Rucker will get plenty of early reps in Chud’s TE-friendly offense, probably make this team one way or the other, and see rookie action on special teams at least.

The Hubbard situation will be interesting. Most teams keep five WRs. The Browns already have Edwards, Stallworth, Jurevicius, and Cribbs. If they’re healthy (a very big if in JJ’s case), that leaves just one spot up for competition among Hubbard, Cleveland native Steve Sanders, 2006 third-rounder Travis Wilson, veteran workout warrior Kevin Kaspar, and two other young holdovers, Syndric Steptoe and Efrem Hill.

You just don’t make a point to acquire an extra pick and then try to sneak him onto the practice squad.

Now, it may be that while Hubbard was chosen with the reacquired pick, the trade was in fact made in order to draft NT Ahtyba Rubin with the adjacent pick, and Savage simply chose to turn in Rubin’s card first.

These complexities are part of what makes the draft fun, even after it happens.

I’ll promise that if the Browns make the Super Bowl and thus put their two foregone ’09 picks at the end of those rounds, I won’t complain, even if the targets of those trades soon prove to be wildly errant shots.

Phil and his scouts deserve a wide berth. And with an ascendant team, trading away a few of next year’s second-day picks for an early chance at some long-term staying power seems like a sound strategy.