The Oakland Raiders continued to build up their defensive secondary and the Atlanta Falcons rid themselves of a player who no longer wanted to be on the team when the two teams consummated a trade on Thursday that sent cornerback DeAngelo Hall to the Bay area for the Raiders' second-round pick in the 2008 NFL Draft and their fifth-round pick in 2009.

NFL Network's Adam Schefter is reporting that in order to complete the trade, the Raiders and Hall agreed to a seven-year, $70 million contract. A breakdown of how the money will be spread out is unknown at this time, and the contract could very well contain one or two years on the back end in which Hall's salary is greatly inflated, meaning he will probably never receive the full value of the deal. Per the report, Hall will get $24.5 million guaranteed, however.

The former Falcon will be paired with fellow cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha on the outside. Gibril Wilson, who was picked up via free agency from the New York Giants, will man the free safety position along side Michael Huff at strong safety, giving the team a very solid secondary. They also have very good depth at corner now with Fabian Washington and Stanford Routt playing in the nickel and dime packages.

Oakland earlier slapped the exclusive franchise designation on Asomugha, who appears to be one of the better up-and-coming corners in the league. Hall, who has been to two Pro Bowls, is a bit overrated in my opinion, but his presence gives the Raiders one of the better pairs of starting cornerbacks in the league and an area they can build around. There is the possibility, however, that either Washington or Routt could be dealt to another team somewhere down the line, perhaps during this year's NFL Draft.

The question now is, will the Raiders be able to stop the run this year. Last season they ranked 31st in the league against opposing ground games, giving up 145 yards per game. And they really haven't done anything to improve their front seven, even after losing defensive tackle Warren Sapp to retirement.

The Falcons now hold three second-round picks in the upcoming draft (their own, the Raiders', and the Texans' as a result of last year's trade of quarterback Matt Schaub) which should give them a lot of flexibility to move up the board on draft day if they choose to package some of those picks.

With all the holes they have to fill, though, they might be better served keeping all their picks and building for the future with four picks in the first two rounds.

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