In a one two punch designed to simultaneously quell the last week’s negative buzz emanating from the Post’s Skins-beat rag-a-muffins Jason LaCanfora, Nunyo “Business” Demasio and Mark Maske, while at the same time bringing a new choir of “Whaaaa?” to the forefront, Gibbs n’ the Gang dropped some serious draft week bomb-a-loo by acquiring Denver’s first round pick, the 25th overall, in exchange for the Skins’ 2005 third rounder, in addition to next year’s first and fourth.

Unsubstantiated rumor has it the trade trigger was pulled because the Redskins are apparently damp with affection over Auburn quarterback Jason Campbell. Last year, Campbell led Auburn to an undefeated record, completing nearly seventy percent of his passes. Campbell thrived at Auburn despite having played each season under a different offensive coordinator, which means he wouldn’t be so taken aback at the typical turnover rate in the Snyder regime. At the same time, the word that the front office may be sniffing around Campbell could not have been received too well by former Quarterback of the Future Patrick Ramsey. When the team has made a serious investment in his starting, they’ve historically botched their enthusiasm by giving him an O-Line primarily composed of tissue paper and petticoats. In contrast, last year, Gibbs spent the lion’s share of the season starting a quarterback who couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn before begrudgingly turning the reins over to Ramsey.

DCist would not be surprised to see the Skins keep the Bronc’s 25th but trade away their original 9th for any combination or multiples of 2nd, 3rd and 4th round selections. Rod Gardner, who’s so disgruntled by now that one can’t recall a time that he was gruntled, is obviously being retained as long as possible to increase his impulse-trade-generating value, hopefully in Saturday’s 3rd round at the latest. At the moment, the Redskins are armed with the 9th and 25th picks in the first round. Finally, only the sixth and seventh round selections remain after last year’s trade of this year’s 2nd to acquire the man they call Chris Cooley, and their 2005 fifth rounder went to Philly to kick off the James Thrash Nostalgia Tour.

Like anything related to Draft Day, all of this is subject to all kinds of change.

[Austinist contributor Travis Mills contributed to this report.]