KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs are obligated to give defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey at least $23 million after selecting him with the fifth pick in last year's draft.

In return, they received 50 tackles and one sack last season. Though it's far too early to write the obituary on Dorsey's career, his situation illustrates the madness for the teams having one of the draft's top picks.

They are more expensive than ever, but they don't develop into Pro Bowlers with any greater frequency than they ever did. So it's little wonder that few—if any—teams want these so-called premium picks at the top of the draft.

There hasn't been a trade for a top-five pick in five years.

"In terms of trades (near the top of the draft), you just don't see any," longtime draft analyst Mel Kiper said. "It's not like the '90s and the '80s and the '70s where teams are moving up and down and around. The top five, six (picks) are not going to be traded. It's just too expensive, both from a financial standpoint and from a picks standpoint as to what you have to give up.

"Normally, the (trade) activity starts around (pick) seven or eight. You figure to have a lot of activity in the middle of the first round. You always do."

The Chiefs are scheduled to pick in the third slot this year. They could be eager to move down to collect extra — and less expensive — picks.

If they are, who could blame them after last year's experience with Dorsey? The Chiefs could get lucky and receive an offer from some team desperate for a quarterback or offensive lineman or another particular player.

More likely, they'll be stuck where they are because other teams around them are also trying to get out.

"Every team picking early on talks about dropping back and picking up multiple picks," former Baltimore coach Brian Billick said.

Charley Casserly was Houston's general manager in 2006 when the Texans had the draft's top pick.

"We had zero offers for our pick," Casserly said "I called the Jets and (general manager) Mike Tannenbaum and Mike says, 'What are you going to give me to take that pick?' That's kind of the attitude: 'We don't want this thing.' "

The Chiefs, with that third pick, will take a greater financial hit than they did with Dorsey. If they're like the teams around them, they'll look toward safer players, the ones with less risk.

Last year, Miami took offensive tackle Jake Long with the first pick. St. Louis followed with defensive end Chris Long. This year, offensive tackles Jason Smith of Baylor and Eugene Monroe of Virginia are projected as top-five picks because they're perceived to have less chance to be busts.

"It's different from club to club," Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli said. "Some teams are more conservative and want to go for what they believe is the safer pick, whatever their definition of safer is."

If the Chiefs are inclined to trade that third pick, they might not want to get greedy with their asking price. The NFL traditional trade chart assigns point values for each pick in the draft.

Typically, they could get a ransom for moving a few spots back from the third pick. This year, they'll probably be happy with whatever they can get in trade.

"That old trade chart that all of the teams used to use, it started to go out the window last year, and like the economy it's completely out the window now," NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock said. "Any team in the top 10 looking to get out will listen to any reasonable offer. More than ever, teams are looking to get down to 15 to 25 because you can get the same kind of player at 20 as you can at (No.) 7 and you'll pay one-third the money.

"I'm (eager) to follow early on in this draft if trades get made, at what level do they get made? I think teams are going to be willing to get out of the top 10 for literally half of what they used to take. Rookies are getting paid way too much money proportionate to their value, so teams are scared to death to miss in the top 10."