Tampa Bay or Tennessee: Where will Marcus Mariota call home? Posted by Kenny Jacoby on Monday, Jan. 5 at 11:50 am. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers held a comfortable 20-7 lead over the New Orleans Saints early in the fourth quarter in a meaningless regular season finale on Dec. 28. Meaningless because neither team had a shot at the playoffs. Tampa Bay, though, had a lot at stake. Some diehard Bucs fans in the front row sported a giant sign with the simple slogan, “Please just lose.” Tampa Bay’s front office and coaching staff shared a similar philosophy. In a game where the Bucs intercepted Drew Brees three times and posted a season-high rushing mark, head coach Lovie Smith pulled the bulk of their starters at halftime, eventually resulting in a loss. Tampa Bay, you are now on the clock. Marcus Mariota, take a good look at your potential new Florida coast home. It sounds downright silly for Tampa Bay to pass up the chance to pick Mariota. After all, he shred opponents for 55 total touchdowns, led the nation with a passer efficiency rating of 186.3 and won the first Heisman Trophy in the University of Oregon’s history. “There will be a huge amount of pressure on the Bucs to find a franchise quarterback with this top pick,” Greg Auman, Bucs beat writer for the Tampa Bay Times said. “Will it be Mariota or Winston? We’ll be debating this for four months. Mariota will be seen as the safer pick because of Winston’s off-field problems. Both will be examined closely, on and off the field, and it will be a major story here until the pick is made.” Let the debate begin. If Tampa Bay goes with Jameis Winston, the Tennessee Titans could snatch Mariota. Few Titans fans would be more pleased than the one who started the Twitter campaign to sacrifice wins now for wins later, @SuckfortheDuck. But even he isn’t getting his hopes up. “I think Jameis is going to fall the same way Johnny Football did,” @SuckfortheDuck tweeted. “The immaturity overshadows the talent at #2 overall. Outside of Mariota in this draft I don’t see them getting anyone better than Cutler, so I wouldn’t hate Cutler for a 3rd or 4th [round pick].” Of course, the possibility of a team trading up for Mariota looms. Rumors of a reunion between Mariota, Chip Kelly and Josh Huff with the Philadelphia Eagles surfaced when the possibility of trading LeSean McCoy and others for the number one pick circulated. Other teams desperate for a franchise quarterback include the St. Louis Rams, Houston Texans, Buffalo Bills and New York Jets. Brian Costello of the New York Post counters the notion that the Jets or any team will move up for Mariota though. “I don’t think the Jets will give up what it will take to move up into the top two of the draft, where I think Mariota will be taken,” Costello said. “I don’t think we’ll see a team give up what the Redskins did to get RGIII for a long time. That has not worked out for them and will scare teams off from doing that.” If Mariota carries a price tag no team is willing to pay, he will almost assuredly flock to the East Coast and don a Titans or Bucs uniform. That is, if he declares for the 2015 NFL draft.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 00:30:01 +0000
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