Playoff Championship Ohio St Oregon Football
Oregon's Marcus Mariota during the first half of the NCAA college football playoff championship game against Ohio State Monday, Jan. 12, 2015, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
(Eric Gay)
Given the uncertainty surrounding the Eagles' quarterback situation heading into the 2015 season and beyond, there has been plenty of speculation that head coach and czar of all things player personnel Chip Kelly will pull the metaphorical rabbit out of his hat and trade up a boatload of spots in the NFL Draft to land Marcus Mariota, whom he coached at Oregon.
With Nick Foles entering the final year of his contract -- and coming off an inconsistent, injury-shortened 10-touchdown, 13 interception campaign -- the Eagles must decide between offering the now fourth-year quarterback an extension this spring or mortgaging several picks this and for the next few drafts on a deal that could reunite Kelly with this year's Heisman Trophy winner.
Phil Savage, former general manager of the Cleveland Browns, director of player personnel with the Baltimore Ravens and player personnel director for the Eagles, doesn't quite see the prudence in trading up for Mariota in April's NFL Draft.
"It's a tough call," Savage told 97.5 FM The Fanatic on Saturday. "Because in this situation there's going to be multiple draft picks involved and even current players on the roster. In this case, you might be taking a step back on your overall team to go and get one player.
"If he falls, it's not going to be that far. He's got excellent traits. He's got leadership in his own way. First class off the field. A lot of character. He's more of a long-term project. When I say long-term project in the NFL, a half a season. There is no development anymore with these quarterbacks because everyone is so desperate to get one and get one on the field as quickly as possible."
The issue for the Eagles, and Kelly if he in fact feels that he needs Mariota at the helm of his offense for it to reach peak performance levels, is the fact that at least five of the first ten teams can be classified as 'quarterback desperate.' Because of that fact alone, the price to move as many as 19 spots from where the Eagles are slated to pick at No. 20 to the top overall selection is a prohibitive one.
"In essence, three number ones or a highly-ranked number one player (and two first-round picks) who would go in a deal in addition to probably some twos. It's a hefty, hefty price," Hall of Fame finalist and former general manager Bill Polian said would likely be the price for the Eagles to move up last week.
The equivalent to the picks that Polian believes it would take to get the deal done would be linebacker Marcus Smith, right tackle Lane Johnson, defensive end Fletcher Cox, tight end Zach Ertz and wide receiver Jordan Matthews, just going off of the Eagles most recent first and second round selections.
That is a hefty portion of the current nucleus of young players to trade for a quarterback who has yet to take a snap in the NFL.
"The bottom line and the reality of it is," Savage explained. "A lot of the visual pictures that Mariota has been taught not to throw the ball into or has not really had to because he has had other options with more wide open receivers, that's not going to happen in the NFL. I think that's the real transition, not only for Mariota but for most of these spread quarterbacks."
Still, Savage pointed out that perhaps the best possible landing spot for Mariota is in Philadelphia, with Kelly, where many of the same principles of the offense he ran at Oregon are still in play at the NFL level.
"I've said all along ... Unless Marcus was drafted by the Eagles, there's going to be a huge transition in terms of how he's been trained to play the quarterback position in college versus what he's going to be asked to do in the NFL. He would be a plug in and play starter in Philly."
Matt Lombardo may be reached at MDLombardo@yahoo.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattLombardo975. Find NJ.com Philadelphia Sports on Facebook