Will the San Diego Chargers Trade Up or Down on Draft Day?

Recently there has been some talk about trading up or down in the first round of this years draft. Most of that talk revolves around two tweets by Kevin Acee and the perceived need to draft one of the top two safety prospects. One of those safeties, Alabama's Mark Barron, is rumored to require a higher pick that the Chargers current 18th overall selection. The other, Notre Dame's Harrison Smith, is thought to be valued lower than that 18th pick. Here's the two aforementioned tweets:

Let's look at what the Chargers would be required to give up in order to make a move up in the draft. After the jump, we can look at some scenarios where the Chargers could find partners that would allow them to trade down. In order to imagine these scenarios, you need to be familiar with the draft pick value chart. Every team is aware of the values on this chart and for the most trades usually work out so that the values match it (or are close enough). Using that chart, the Chargers 1st round pick is worth 900 points. If you know that, then the following table should start to make sense:

Trading down is a little more complicated since you have more than one pick that originally belonged to the team being traded with. Each team has it's own unique combination of picks taken into account. You can't just say, "Let's trade down and pick up a 2nd round pick". For example: To get the best 1st round pick in return in this type of trade requires the lowest possible 2nd round pick. The 63rd pick is the last 2nd round pick in the 2012 draft and is worth 276 points and is owned by the New York Giants. The Chargers pick is worth 900 points and 900 - 276 is 624. The pick worth around that many point (620) is the 30th piick and is owned by the 49ers. That's not going to work. The Giants have pick 32 worth 590 points meaning the Chargers would leave 34 points on the table. Finding the right match takes careful planning.

Here's some scenarios that potentially could work: