I’ve been racking my brain for weeks trying to come up with a more highly-anticipated draft for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Only one year comes close – 1999.
In that draft, head coach Andy Reid and crew held the No. 2 pick and the hot question was whether the Eagles would select running back Ricky Williams or quarterback Donovan McNabb. Reid went with the latter, some knuckleheads booed and the Eagles embarked on the most successful period in franchise history.
Due respect to that year, that draft and everything that happened in the next decade, but the anticipation and potential of the 2015 NFL Draft simply blow that away.
We sit two days from finally seeing how Chip Kelly finishes this offseason of maneuvering. Like a chess Grandmaster, the coach entering his third season with the Eagles has been moving pieces in breathtaking ways for the last two months. We’re the novices in the game, seeing things one move at a time. Only Kelly has known the plan, seeing the whole board.
The rumors have swirled around one key player – Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota. Chip Kelly’s star pupil. The player who Kelly has put on the same mental plane as Peyton Manning. The player who Chip Kelly says will win multiple Super Bowls.
And the player who Chip Kelly said he would not mortgage the franchise’s future to get.
I believe him. Chip Kelly will not mortgage the future to land Mariota on Thursday night.
He’ll mortgage the present. Sort of.
One of the latest rumors has the Eagles sending quarterback Sam Bradford, defensive end Fletcher Cox and linebacker Mychal Kendricks packing in order to land the second pick and bring Mariota and Kelly together again.
This price sounds steep, but it makes sense and keeps with what Kelly has said all along. The Eagles wouldn’t be “mortgaging their future” if the price tag to get Mariota doesn’t include a boatload of draft picks. Kendricks became expendable when the Eagles traded LeSean McCoy for linebacker Kiko Alonso and signed DeMeco Ryans to an extension. Cox would be the toughest one to part with, as he seems on the verge of stardom, but he is replaceable.
Super Bowl-caliber quarterbacks are not replaceable and they only come around so often. There have been 50 Super Bowls and only 32 Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks. Just 11 quarterbacks have accounted for 29 of those titles.
People have been wondering if Chip Kelly is crazy after all of the moves he’s made this offseason. No, Chip Kelly is only crazy if he doesn’t do whatever it takes to get Mariota, a guy he believes can join a very exclusive club of quarterbacks who can win the big one.
Thursday night can’t come soon enough.
I’m betting the Grandmaster has at least one more move left to shock the world.
