What if the Eagles Drafted Marcus Mariota?
One of the darkest times of the Eagles’ franchise had to be the Chip Kelly era. After leaving football fans and experts in awe from his throttling offensive scheme in his first season as head coach, his success disintegrated while his ego grew until he was no longer in the league.
However, as much damage as he did to the Eagles, there was one move that he didn’t make which would have altered the future of the team monumentally: trading up to draft his former Oregon quarterback, Marcus Mariota.
Going into the 2015 draft, the biggest rumor going around the NFL was that Kelly would attempt to move up to the number 2 spot (trade with the Tennessee Titans) to reunite with Marcus Mariota from their days at Oregon. While it never happened, Chip Kelly had to have at least pondered the chance, right? You betcha. Kelly more than pondered it; his offer to the Titans was putting all his chips on the table.
Per Peter Schrager of NFL Network, Chip Kelly offered the Eagles’ 2015 first and second-round picks, any quarterback on their roster, and anyone on their defense. Insanity. In essence, Kelly offered Sam Bradford, Fletcher Cox, Nelson Agholor (Eagles first-round pick), and Eric Rowe (Eagles second-round pick). But that’s not all. Schrager reported that when Kelly offered anyone on his defense, his offer stood for more than one player. While Kelly has come out and denied making any offer at all, does anyone really buy it given the moves he made?
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Photo: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images
So let’s say this deal went through, and today, not Carson Wentz, but Marcus Mariota is the Eagles’ starting quarterback; where would we be? Let’s start with the success Mariota and Kelly had together in college. In their one season together, Mariota threw for 32 touchdowns and 6 interceptions, while winning the Fiesta Bowl in 2012 and a record of 12-1. Running the offense through Mariota, Kelly had the 2nd best scoring offense in the country and ranked 2nd in the AP Poll (pre CFB Playoffs era). The difference between the NFL and college football is obviously day and light, but you had to believe that a certain degree of success between these two would have transferred over.
Now let’s look at the players that Kelly was reported to have offered. Even though Sam Bradford never yielded any real success in Philadelphia, his trade to the Vikings gave the Eagles a first-round pick, which was used to pick Derek Barnett. Since 2015, Fletcher Cox has been unstoppable. He’s totaled 32 sacks (most on the Eagles since 2015), 37 tackles for loss, and 85 QB hits. Despite a lackluster first two years, Nelson Agholor turned into one of the NFL’s top slot receivers by accumulating 126 receptions for 1504 yards and 12 touchdowns between 2017 and 2018.
Eric Rowe was another player who never amounted to much with the Eagles, but he brought more to the team than what you think. Rowe was traded to the Patriots for a 4th round pick, which was then used to trade for Jay Ajayi. All in all, Fletcher Cox, Derek Barnett, Nelson Agholor, and Jay Ajayi, who were all huge pieces during the Eagles’ Super Bowl run, would not have been here if Kelly made that trade.
It’s safe to say that a Lombardi trophy is not present in this city if that trade went through. In fact, this team would have been set back years in a rebuilding process. Mariota hasn’t been more than 3rd tier quarterback in this league, although, to his benefit, he’s had to deal with 3 different head coaches and 3 different offensive coordinators.
Still, for the amount of praise Mariota was showered within his scouting report, he’s been nothing short of disappointing. And to imagine Carson Wentz on another team is a nightmare.
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Categorized:Eagles