Maybe Pearsall was one of the guys they had penciled in along with Legette & Coleman, and they figured going to 32 from 28 had a high probability of one of the three being there. When two were still available, they decided a one slot move down would ensure at least one was still there, plus an extra top 150 pick using NE as leverage (which turned into Sedrick Van Pran-Granger, quality IOL depth at worst, long term starting center at best). Pretty nice move if so