The former Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly, who is now with the San Francisco 49ers, insisted leading up to and after the draft, in which the Philadelphia Eagles drafted wide receiver Nelson Agholor with the No. 20 draft pick out of USC, that the price to move up 18 spots for Marcus Mariota was too great. Well, apparently – according to NFL Insider Peter Schrager – Kelly did indeed offer a boatload for Mariota.
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With the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, it’s even easier to say now that the Tennessee Titans turning down the Philadelphia Eagles in a trade request last offseason was the best thing to happen to the Eagles.
Kelly was the head coach at the University of OR when Mariota was recruited to the school where he would go on to win the Heisman Trophy after Kelly departed for the NFL.
The Titans allegedly also had their choice to take either quarterback Sam Bradford or quarterback Mark Sanchez AND anyone of the Titans choosing from the Eagles defense.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – If the Titans deal out of the No. 1 pick in the National Football League draft, they expect a load of picks in exchange for doing so.
It’s quite possible that the Titans likely could have gotten more from the Eagles as well, and all they would have had to do was ask.
“We didn’t offer any players to anybody”.
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General manager Jon Robinson, appearing at local radio station 104.5 The Zone’s annual Sportsfest, said that the team isn’t opposed to moving the pick, but would have to be given very good reason to do it. And while Kelly himself emphatically denied said rumors, most of us knew there were something to them. It’s like driving into a nice neighborhood and looking at a house and saying, ‘That’s really nice, ‘ and then they tell you the price and you turn around and drive away.
