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As I stated yesterday, I never truly believed the Tennessee Titans should or would trade away the No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft. They needed a franchise quarterback, and Marcus Mariota is definitely capable of being the man for the job. With that said, there is one ridiculous trade offer that was made for the No. 2 overall pick that the Titans definitely should have taken.
The Philadelphia Eagles, a team everyone assumed would do everything in their power to trade up and draft Mariota, gave Tennessee an offer that was too good to be true. According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Eagles were willing to surrender two first-round draft picks, a third-round draft pick, defensive end Fletcher Cox, nickel cornerback Brandon Boykin, quarterback Sam Bradford and linebacker Mychal Kendricks for the right to select Mariota.
At this point, Mariota better turn out to be Andrew Luck and not Robert Griffin III after Tennessee passed on the insane offer. When healthy, Bradford is a productive quarterback. Plus, Kendricks is a decent starting linebacker and Cox is arguably Philadelphia’s best defensive player. Not to mention, the first-round draft picks that could have netted two decent starters.
If anything else, the offer proves Eagles head coach Chip Kelly has no business having final say in all personnel decisions. I understand he coached Mariota at Oregon and he is convinced the signal caller is a perfect fit to run his high-flying offense, but there is a chance Mariota would not have panned out. If that were to happen, Philadelphia would have set themselves back years due to the botched trade.
It is that reason why Tennessee clearly screwed up by not taking the deal. Of course, there is always the possibility Mariota turns out to be the best player in the 2015 NFL Draft class, in which case I would stand corrected.
Michael Terrill is a Senior Writer for Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @MichaelTerrill, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
