No one really knows where Marcus Mariota is going to end up, but his camp apparently feels that two teams are competing to trade up and draft him.
According to ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio, the feeling among those close to Mariota is that the San Diego Charges and Philadelphia Eagles are looking to trade up to put themselves in position to draft the former Oregon star.
Separating truth from fiction is almost impossible at this point. The Tennessee Titans currently have the No. 2 overall pick, and any trade they make with the Chargers or Eagles would likely involve a swapping of picks and a starting quarterback — either Philip Rivers or Sam Bradford. Of course, it was reported on Tuesday that the Chargers are not trading Rivers. Chip Kelly has also gone to great lengths publicly to convince us that he did not acquire Bradford as trade bait.
As we know, one or more people or teams are lying. Mariota’s camp could simply be trying to create more buzz in order to assure that he doesn’t fall past No. 2 in the draft, while the Eagles and Charges could be playing coy about their intentions.
Beyond San Diego and Philadelphia, there have been reports that the Cleveland Browns are seriously interested in Mariota and have chatted with the Washington Redskins about moving up in the draft. In other words, half the NFL is supposedly interested in Mariota, who is only going to wind up with one team. At this point, it’s anyone’s guess as to which team that will be.
