More Mariota trade talk, plus other draft buzz …

http://gbnreport.com/
April 9, 2015 – 3:30 pm

More Mariota trade talk, plus other draft buzz … Another day and more rumblings of teams interested in moving up to grab Oregon QB Mariota somewhere early in the first-round of this month’s draft. For starters, an older rumor that Chicago, which has the 7th pick, could be in play for Mariota and would be willing – make that happy, thrilled overjoyed – to include incumbent starting QB Jay Cutler as part of the package. Tennessee, which has the 2nd pick, might be tempted as Cutler played collegiately at Vanderbilt in Nashville, but might actually ask the Bears for compensation for taking Cutler off their hands. At the same time, Mike Flori of Pro Football Talk is reporting this day, that according to ‘multiple league sources” Cleveland is prepared to offer up both its first round picks – the 12th and 19th – to move up to get Mariota. Whether those two first rounders would be enough to get the Browns up to the #2 remains to be seen, but that could be a tempting offer to the Titans who are talking about building a team around strong-armed second year pro Zach Mettenberger and could use all the picks they can get if that’s the way they want to proceed. Interesting that one team Mariota will not visit is Washington, which has leaked some interest in taking him with the 5th pick, after the player and team couldn’t work out a suitable date. Really! One wonders if Mariota’s team felt that Washington really wasn’t all that interested in the player, but wanted to throw some smoke to drum up trade interest in the pick … While most of the draft trade buzz in recent days has focused on Oregon QB Marcus Mariota and the 2nd pick overall currently held by Tennessee, there is some potential for other trade runs later in the opening round. Rob Rang of CBS Sports is reporting, for example, that Miami, which has the 14th pick overall, is seriously considering trying to make a move up into the top 10 to get either of WRs Amari Cooper of Alabama or west Virginia’s Kevin White. In fact, Miami may just be one of several teams with picks in the teens who may try and move up to get a receiver with Louisville’s Devante Parker also possibly being in the mix. Indeed, along with Miami, St. Louis at 310, Cleveland at #12, Houston at #16, and Kansas City at #1 all have major needs at WR and may be tempted to get one of the top three wideouts as there is a drop off among the next level of receivers. For the record, Rang has also just updated his Big Board ranking of the top 64 prospects for the 2015 draft in which he has Nebraska OLB Randy Gregory and Florida State DT Eddie Goldman slipping somewhat; Gregory in the wake of that positive test for marijuana at the combine and Goldman after what was reportedly a less than stellar pro day workout last week. On the other hand, Rang has Miami OT Ereck Flowers moving up – to 14th overall – and that confirms with what we have been hearing. Flowers has prototype size and length for a pro OT on either side and while he isn’t necessarily all that light on his feet, he has some of the best game tape of any prospect in this year’s draft. Play in and play out, the guy in front of Flowers just doesn’t make many plays such that no one should be shocked if a team like the Giants, St., Louis or Minnesota, who pick 9th thru #11 take him ahead of some of the offensive lineman who have generally carried higher grades through the draft process … Meanwhile, back to West Virginia WR Kevin White for just a moment, folks can stop feeling sorry for him after it was reported earlier in the week that despite the fact that he was a potential top 5 pick this year, the former Moyntaineers’ star had received only one paltry invitation to visit an NFL team HQ for a pre-draft visit. In fact, it seems that White’s dance card has filled up a bit since with visits now lined up with Chicago and St. Louis, as well as the two New York teams. For the record, that is the teams with the 6th, 7th, 9th and 10th picks this year, just about where one would figure White would go IF he isn’t selected by Oakland with the 4th selection.