Mariota

Could Marcus Mariota fall to the Rams?

By Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/16649/could-marcus-mariota-fall-to-the-rams

EARTH CITY, Mo. — The general consensus even before quarterbacks Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston declared for the NFL draft has been that both would be long gone before the St. Louis Rams make their pick at No. 10 in April.

Since both Mariota and Winston declared, there has been a slight shift — and to be clear, this is media perception not necessarily teams — in that thinking with a lot of draft pundits declaring Winston a sure thing to go No. 1 overall and Mariota potentially slipping.

In fact, NFL.com draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah’s latest mock draft has Mariota not only slipping out of the top five but dropping all the way to No. 10. There, Jeremiah has the Rams pulling the trigger on the former Oregon Duck and Heisman Trophy winner.

Jeremiah writes that “the Rams can’t rely on Sam Bradford to stay healthy, and Mariota would be a great fit with their current offensive personnel.”

Adding one of the top two quarterbacks in the draft would seem like nothing short of a no-brainer for the Rams given their need at the position. We can’t say right now that they would absolutely do it if Mariota were to fall but one would think it would have to be a strong consideration. But the real question is whether Mariota would actually ever make it to No. 10?

Despite what many of the teams in front of the Rams are saying publicly, it’s hard to imagine that all of the teams in need of a quarterback in front of them would pass on Mariota. If we assume that Winston goes No. 1 to Tampa Bay then it would mean for Mariota to fall to St. Louis that Tennessee, Washington, the New York Jets and Chicago would all pass on Mariota in favor of help at other positions.

That doesn’t even include the possibility of another team (looking at you, Philadelphia) trading ahead of the Rams to land Mariota.

But in looking at the chances of all of those teams actually ignoring the most important position in the game, it’s hard to imagine that he slips.

This is a league in which the Titans once took Jake Locker one pick before Tyron Smith went to Dallas, Jacksonville traded up to No. 10 to take Blaine Gabbert with J.J. Watt going No. 11 to Houston and Minnesota drafting Christian Ponder with Robert Quinn still on the board. All of that happened in the 2011 draft.

That isn’t to say Mariota will struggle like any of those players, just that teams have consistently proved that their willing to take a quarterback over players who might be more highly-rated at other positions.

While some teams have likely learned their lesson from shoe horning a quarterback instead of taking the best player available, the financial risk of drafting a quarterback that doesn’t work out isn’t what it used to be. Which means it’s probably a safe bet that somebody is going to take Mariota before the Rams ever get a chance.