Philadelphia Eagles: Mariota and the Unpopular Hypothetical

By Jacob Brooks | Jan 25, 2015

The Philadelphia Eagles fan base is a passionate group, there is no doubting that. Passion is a good thing. Passion means you care. Passion means you expect the best, but there is also a fine line between that passion and being unrealistic or “getting stuck with your blinders on.”

Passion can give you a false sense of reality or blind you to the fact that nothing is certain. Often times when I talk sports, more specifically about the Philadelphia Eagles, I like to play the devils advocate role.

Allow me to play devils advocate and to pose this question to everyone who is in such a frenzy that the Philadelphia Eagles need to do whatever it takes to land Marcus Mariota.

What if Mariota was drafted by the Eagles and in his Rookie campaign he had passing numbers like this:

16 games started | 326/545 completions | 56.7% completion percentage | 3,739 passing yards | 26 touchdowns | 28 interceptions | 71.2 rating (158.3 is perfect) | 3-13 record

Ouch! Some fans forget that the NFL is a different ball game and this very well could be Mariota’s rookie campaign. I know its hard to hear and you might not like it, but it is true. My unpopular hypothetical is explained below.

In this situation I am referring to the overwhelming support that Eagles fans are showing for Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota. Currently I see the Philadelphia Eagles fan base split into two groups: The “Lets do whatever it takes to get Mariota to Philly” group and the “Lets draft a bigger need” group. By my count, the pro-Mariota group far outweighs the other group.

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I fall into the “we have bigger issues than quarterback” group, but I do see the intrigue that the Mariota believers are drooling over. I don’t think quarterback is the biggest need. I like current Eagles quarterback Nick Foles, he had a rough year, but he has also had a very dominant year. I hear a lot of talk about Foles not being good and he threw off his back foot a lot etc.

He did, he had a bad year, but to be fair there are many factors that go into that. He had no offensive line stability in the early games and no running game to take pressure off him among other things. Even with his “bad” year the Eagles still fared well and boast an impressive record (14-4) with Foles starting under Head Coach Chip Kelly. That is neither here nor there though, this post is about Mariota.

Let’s say the Philadelphia Eagles do trade up to get Mariota. No one knows what it would take, but it assuredly would cost the team a lot. Multiple 1^st and 2^nd round picks, maybe a couple current Eagles superstars added in to move from the 20^th draft position to presumably the 1^st draft spot to take Mariota. It doesn’t matter how they move up, the Philadelphia Eagles team as a whole will have taken a step back in some aspect.

The passion that is pushing Eagles fans to believe that the whole team will suddenly become an immediate Superbowl contender and bring the Philadelphia Eagles into a glory that is much owed to this franchise and its fans, is the same passion that is blinding those believers. I have no problem admitting that Mariota had one of the best college careers of recent history and I really enjoyd watching him play. He is also a “great person” that I personally believe the NFL needs more of.

The problem these fans are blinded from is that nothing is guaranteed, NOTHING. A great college career means nothing in the NFL. It shows potential of what could be, but it doesn’t mean the same success is automatically guaranteed. Eagles fans should know that anything can change from one year to the next.

It was a short couple years ago that Eagles fans were riding hard on the Nick Foles train with his success and yet the very next year many people have jumped off that same train. A 6-2 record and 13 interceptions before he was injured was all it took for many fans to abandon the train and forget what he had just accomplished. If Mariota had a sub-par rookie season like I mentioned above, where would you stand?

Would you jump off the Mariota train just as quickly as the Foles train? These numbers could happen, the NFL is the cream of the crop of the NCAA players. Quarterbacks transitioning to the NFL are often the focus of some of the biggest “busts” in the NFL draft process. I would even argue that a quarterback going from college to the NFL has the sharpest transition of any position. Which makes the likely hood of Mariota having a terrible season, just as likely as having a good one.

At what point does the passion for the Eagles cause you to support a player even when he isn’t playing quite like you had hoped? One bad season isn’t enough to judge one player. Even with one bad season, players can recover and have great careers. Think about the numbers I posed for Mariota’s rookie season. Pretty terrible stats, but things change, ask Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning, those were his rookie numbers and his career turned out pretty good.

Next: Eagles and Maclin: No Deal Yet

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