Could Marcus Mariota Fall To The New England Patriots At Pick 32?

I think we can all agree that the best quarterback in this year’s draft class is Jameis Winston. He has all the tools necessary to succeed in the NFL, and he has flourished in the spotlight of the combine and interviews leading up to the draft. The other top quarterback prospect is former Oregon star Marcus Mariota, and while he isn’t expected to go number one overall, he is expected to go extremely high.

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With that said, I wanted to throw out a crazy question today: what if Mariota somehow fell to the Pats at pick 32? The likelihood of this happening is somewhere around zero, but we have seen stranger things happen before.

Let’s break this down by team needs. First up, we have the Tennessee Titans at pick number two. They could use a quarterback going forward, but with defensive lineman Leonard Williams likely still on the board, I doubt they pass up on him. After Tennessee, we have the always loveable New York Jets. I have been mocking Mariota to them constantly this offseason, as they won’t be going anywhere in the AFC East until they have a good signal caller. They are the best bet to take him, although with the amount of talent there is in this year’s draft class, there is a chance they go somewhere else. For example, if Amari Cooper, or Kevin White is till on the board at six, the Jets might go with a wideout.

So let’s say both the Titans, and Jets pass on Mariota. And since Chicago has seemingly committed to Jay Cutler, they are out of the running for now. This brings us to the St. Louis Rams, who recently traded away their own top quarterback, Sam Bradford. Now, this is where my Mariota falling argument begins to unravel. If the Jets pass, AND the Bears pass, I don’t see how the Rams would say no. They need a guy like Mariota to revive their offense, especially with Bradford now in Philadelphia.

However with that said, perhaps they like what they have in Nick Foles, and want to build around him. While this is unlikely, it’s certainly plausible, and since this whole article is going off the most unlikely scenarios over, I’m going continue on.

Next up, the Cleveland Browns at pick 12. Normal logic says they should pick Mariota, but the Browns are so messed up, they’ll probably pick a punter. Seven picks later, the Browns show up again, and make the same mistake of passing on Mariota….

After that, there’s nothing stopping Mariota from falling to Bill Belichick and the Patriots. Well, except for his former college coach, and an offensive system that is tailor-made for Mariota….

Okay, so when you break it down, there is no chance Mariota slips to pick 32. There are six teams that could use a quarterback in front of New England, and one of them has two seperate selections. I’m downgrading my likelihood meter of this happening from close to zero, to negative zero.

But what if Mariota somehow, by the grace of God, slipped all the way to the Patriots at the end of the first round? Bill Belichick would be giddy with all of the things he could do with that pick. He could reel in a ridiculous haul in draft picks in terms of value, as there would be plenty of teams willing to trade up to snag Mariota. Obviously the Pats don’t need a quarterback right now, but good ole’ Bill could pull another epic troll job and actually draft Mariota, creating the most talented trio of quarterbacks on one roster in the history of everything.

However it is not meant to be. Mariota probably won’t make it out of the top 10, which means Belichick can’t screw with the league in the most epic way possible to start the 2015 season.

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