Most of the talk leading up to the 2015 NFL draft surrounded the possibility of then Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly looking to acquire top prospect Marcus Mariota in that year’s draft.
We read numerous reports indicating Kelly, then the head of Philadelphia’s player personnel department, wanting to bring in his former quarterback at Oregon. And while Kelly himself emphatically denied said rumors, most of us knew there were something to them.
Now comes this from Fox Sports’ Peter Schrager (h/t Deadspin) indicating that Kelly did in fact offer a pretty huge bounty to the Tennessee Titans for the right to move up to the second overall pick and select Mariota.
https://twitter.com/LiamJenkins21/status/710536904836575232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The bounty Kelly was offering included Philadelphia’s first and second-round picks in 2015, first-round pick this year, any quarterback on the team’s roster and a choice between any defensive player on the Eagles.
Um. Yeah, that would have been a pretty nice haul for the Titans. In fact, some might very well conclude it would have helped turn around the franchise more than selecting Mariota himself.
After all, the Titans could have easily opted for a combination of Sam Bradford, Fletcher Cox and those three picks.
As it is, Mariota put up a dazzling performance during his rookie season in Tennessee. Meanwhile, Kelly was fired following a disastrous 2015 campaign. He’s now attempting to turn things around as the head coach of the dormant San Francisco 49ers.