How Do Teams Know When Another Team Tries To Trade Up?

[BFritz21]

Or do they even know?

A lot of times, it will seem like I'll hear "the Dolphins were trying to trade up to take Williams, so the Eagles traded up to that spot to grab him to prevent them from doing it," and I always wonder, how did they know that?

Does the team that's being offered the trade leak the information so that it persuades another team to leak the information or do teams behind just assume that a team will trade up based on pre-draft rumors/workouts/meetings?

Anybody know?

[CJD]

Likely the team they are trying to trade up for will think "Buffalo is trying to trade to 6 for the last QB on the board, we know Arizona also wants a QB. Maybe we'll give them a call and see how much this QB may be worth to them."

[sandwedge]

I think it might be like bargain shopping? "Hey Lowes, Home Depot said they will sell me a bag of manure for $10, what can you do for me?"

[Hammerstripes]

I don't think they know at the time - I think a lot of that is discussed with the media and that's how it gets out.

I'm sure several GMs have bluffed saying that team A is offering this and that, but I'm sure that they never really know until after the fact.