Playing Titans, some Eagles wonder what might have been
It wasn’t that long ago when Marcus Mariota dominated everything in Philadelphia. Headlines, sports talk radio, water cooler chatter, you name it, all the talk was whether or not Mariota was going to be an Eagle and what should the Eagles do to make it happen.
Mariota had just won the Heisman Trophy with the University of Oregon in 2014. Chip Kelly was the Eagles coach who had been Oregon’s head coach two years earlier and recruited Mariota from Hawaii to come to Oregon.
Problem was, the Eagles were slotted to pick 20th overall in the 2015 NFL Draft. Mariota would be long gone, unless they could find a way to engineer a trade with the team that owned the second overall pick — the Tennessee Titans.
“So much stuff happened before with Chip and letting go of some of the guys (such as receiver DeSean Jackson and running back LeSean McCoy), so I don’t put it past (him) now, but I think (Mariota’s) a really good quarterback,” Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham said. “I was like, ‘Hey, if we get him, we get him, but hopefully we don’t have to give up everything.'”
The Eagles never made the move up to get him, although there were reports at the time that they had offered defensive tackle Fletcher Cox as a sweetener.
Graham shuddered when asked what would have happened had Cox been dealt in that deal.
“I wouldn’t want to leave and I wouldn’t want to see him leave,” Graham said. “That would be crazy thinking about it now. People are still talking about DeSean and all that McCoy stuff. Fletch? Then see Fletch playing like he is right now? It’d be like the whole Khalil Mack thing. Like dang, they let him go and look how he’s playing.
“People are going to talk to (executive vice president of football operations) Howie (Roseman) and all those guys and you (would) have to have a good story on what happened (if Cox were traded back then). You have to have people believe, that’s all. You’d have to sell that one.”
So Mariota went to the Titans and now the Eagles might have to contend with him. It’s likely that Mariota will start despite an injury that has his throwing hand fingers feeling numb because Blaine Gabbert is in concussion protocol and the team only signed veteran Austin Davis off the street earlier in the week.
“I really liked him coming out of college,” Eagles head coach Doug Pederson said about Mariota. “I thought his athleticism, his attention to detail, his work ethic, he is a smart kid. I thought being in the right system, he would really flourish, and he has, and he’s done some good things.
“Always been one of those quarterbacks — he’s always been one of those guys that can be dangerous outside the pocket. You saw it in college and you’ve seen it in his first few years in the league. He throws a really good ball. I haven’t really seen him in person until this weekend if he gets a chance to start and looking forward to watching him a little bit.”
Unable to move up to get Mariota, Kelly never lasted the 2015 season, getting fired with one game left in the regular season.
That spring, though, the Eagles got their franchise quarterback, after all, making two separate trades to move up from No. 13 overall to No. 8 then going from No. 8 to No. 2 to Carson Wentz.
And Cox?
Well, he is on a mission to be the NFC Defensive Player of the Year and is off to a good start with three sacks in three games five tackles for losses and 17 quarterback hurries.
SERIES HISTORY: 12th regular season meeting. Eagles lead series, 7-4. The Eagles beat the Titans, 43-24, in their previous meeting on Nov. 23, 2014, at Lincoln Financial Field, but Tennessee has won four of the previous matchups dating back to 2000. Since the NFL’s division realignment in 2002, the Eagles are 10-7 against AFC South teams, with a seven-game winning streak against teams from that division.
