Marcus Mariota: What Will The Philadelphia Eagles Have To Give Up?

By Blaine Grisak | Feb 27, 2015

One of the biggest topics surrounding the Philadelphia Eagles this offseason has been whether or not head coach Chip Kelly would pull off a trade to move from the Eagles’ 20th selection to inside the top ten in order to get Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota.

The looming question however, is how much will the Eagles have to give up in order to move up into a potential top-10, even top-5 spot? While there is the obvious draft value chart that teams refer to, however, most likely, whoever the Eagles are going to trade with are going to want more than what the chart asks for.

However, as NJ.com and Comcast Sports Net’s Jimmie Kempski have reported, the Eagles are “determined” to get Mariota. By the sounds of it, they will do whatever it takes to get the number two quarterback in this class.

According to the chart, if the Eagles want to move up into the top-5 to say pick four, this is to say that Mariota is still on the board by then, Chip Kelly would have to give up 950 points.

The reason I have selected the Raiders fourth pick is that most mocks thus far have had Mariota still on the board at six, however, the chances of getting a deal done with a)your division rival, or b) a team in need of that quarterback is very unlikely.

To break it down using the draft value chart

Number 4 overall pick=1800-pts

Number 20 overall pick = 850-pts

What this means is that the Eagles would have to give up at the very least, their third round pick this year, plus their first round pick next year, in this situation we’re going to assume its around pick 20 (180+850=1030).

This seems too easy as its only and one and three would be enough to move up, but a team like Oakland isn’t going to be interested in low-round draft picks. They’re going to want first-round picks. Lots of them, especially given this is for a quarterback.

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In 2012 when the St. Louis Rams traded back just four spots from number two to number six, they picked up two first round picks as well as a second rounder. While the price to move up from six to two was only 1,000 points differential, the Redskins ended up giving up 3,720 points(two first round picks, 3200, plus a second, 520=3,720).

On the other hand, in 2011, the Falcons traded from 26 to 6 with Cleveland to acquire Julio Jones. This is a very similar situation to what the Eagles want to do now except for Mariota. In this situation their was a differential of 900 points.

Cleveland ended up receiving swapping picks with Atlanta, 27th overall, second round pick(310-pts), fourth-rounder(48-pts), and also Atlanta’s first(700) and fourth(48-pts)round selections in 2012. In total the flacons gave up 1,206 points, so not that far off from the 900 that they needed, but still overpaid.

While it would be nice just to look at the chart and only give up a first and third round pick, the fact of the matter is, it is going to cost the Eagles a lot more to move up to where they need to in order to draft Mariota.

It also doesn’t help that Chip Kelly doesn’t know how to play poker and has gushed about Mariota during this process. To make a long story short, everybody and their dog knows that the Eagles want Mariota and are going to try to get everything out of them because they know that Kelly will do almost whatever it takes to get his star quarterback.

A realistic option for the Eagles to move up to number four would be a 2015 first and second(380), 2016 first(850) and second(380). This would total 1610 points, almost double the “asking price”.

Experts such as Peter King and Pat Kirwin have also given their take. King has the Eagles giving up their first and second round picks in 2015(380-pts) and first(850-pts) and fourth(62-pts) in 2016(Total: 1,262). Meanwhile Kirwin has the Eagles sending their first-round pick this year and next(850) year plus RB LeSean McCoy.

At the end of the day, nobody really knows what or how much the Eagles are going to have to send to move up where they need to be to get Mariota or where they will trade up to for that matter. When all is said and done, that is what its going to come down to, how much is the asking price and what are the Eagles willing to give up to get their guy.

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