Essendon has not ruled out targeting out-of-favour West Coast defenders Eric Mackenzie and Mitch Brown.
Both Mackenzie and Brown have been pushed down the pecking order this season with the rise of young defender Tom Barrass and the continual emergence of Jeremy McGovern.
Barrass won the round 23 Rising Star nomination after his stunning performance against the Crows last weekend.
Mackenzie, who won the Eagles' best and fairest award in 2014, has struggled this year with form and confidence after returning from a knee reconstruction.
And the pinch-hitting role in the ruck of Brown - who is out-of-contract at the end of the season - has been an abject failure.
Essendon coach John Worsfold said the club was still undecided whether to use its number one draft pick to secure a young player, or trade it to get more seasoned campaigners like Brown or Mackenzie.
Worsfold would have a good understanding of what both defenders are capable of, having coached the pair at West Coast.
"We have to make sure we use this draft and this pre-season draft to the best of our ability to improve our squad and get us ready to climb the ladder," he told Radio SEN.
"You don't know if you are any chance of securing one of those good, uncontracted players or not but once we find that out we can make the call – which way we want to go with the draft.
"There are a couple of key defenders at West Coast who look like they have had their positions taken by a young player called [Tom] Barrass. They are players, who know where they sit.
"Mackenzie and Brown didn't play a lot in the second half of the year or a lot this year. I don't know where they sit contractually."
Worsfold also hinted the club was still keen on Dockers goal-sneak Hayden Ballantyne.
WAtoday flagged earlier in the month the Bombers had dangled a three-year contract in front of the 29-year-old.
But the livewire forward has also been linked to the Cats and even West Coast.
"We will certainly find out where he is at," Worsfold said of Ballantyne.
"Ballantyne's name has been thrown around a lot... there are other players at Fremantle and ove the next few days we are going to hear about a lot of players being told they are not going to be required at clubs.
"Knowing now the situation, and the rules of the game with trading and draft picks, and, obviously, the pre-season picks, means that we have got plenty to think about."
