First Trade of 2002

As the 2002 draft progressed and the Philadelphia Phreaks continued to select running back after running back, speculation mounted as to when GM Ping Shen would seek to bolster his wide receiver core of Keyshawn Johnson, Chris Chambers and Plaxico Burress. The speculation ended early Wednesday morning as the Phreaks announced a four player trade with Skool, sending last year's second round pick Stephen Davis, along with this year's 7th rounder to Skool in exchange for Isaac Bruce and former Phreak, Emmitt Smith.

"This is a good trade for us--we were looking to not only add depth at the receiver position, but we especially wanted to bring in a proven veteran who could help us get to that next level. We felt good enough with our draft that we had adequate depth at running back to be able to deal away Stephen Davis. We'll miss Stephen--his veteran savvy and lockerroom leadership are tough to replace, but with the young talent that we picked up in this year's draft, Stephen became expendable," said Shen in a statement issued Wednesday.

ESPN's Chris Berman, in response to the trade, said, "This is a big gamble for the Phreaks--they're staking a whole lot on the production that they will get from Michael Pittman, DeShaun Foster, and Jamal Lewis. If any two of those back step up and produce, this is a great trade for the Phreaks as nobody can question the scoring ability that Isaac Bruce brings to the table."

It appears that Emmitt Smith will open the season alongside Michael Pittman as the starting running backs for the Phreaks. However, Smith is most likely just keeping the seat warm for Phreak rookie DeShaun Foster, who is expected to start by mid-season. On the receiving end, Plaxico Burress now appears to be on the short end of the stick, finding himself relagated to the bench behind the formidable core of Isaac Bruce, Keyshawn Johnson, and Chris Chambers.