Who’s #2 … There appears to be a growing sense around the NFL that Tennessee is unlikely to select Oregon QB Marcus Mariota with the second pick overall at the upcoming draft. Instead the thinking appears to be that the Titans will give second-year QB Zach Mettenberger another season to develop and either take a position like Southern California DE Leonard Williams, whom NFL.com rates as the safest pick in this year’s draft, or look to trade the pick, possibly to some team that has a greater need for a young QB like Mariota. Indeed, the $64K question at this year’s draft could be just where Mariota goes. Washington and the Jets, who pick 5th and 6th picks respectively in this year’s opening round, both had full front-office contingents at Mariota’s pro day earlier this month, although there is a sense around the league that Washington may in fact be just feigning interest to induce a team with a later pick like Cleveland to move up ahead of the Jets, although its not clear why Washington would then also need to make any team think they might take Mariota themselves. In fact, all that kind of smoke and mirrors might accomplish is force said team with the later to pick to also plot to move up ahead of Washington! Then, of course, Philadelphia is still out there and may still may be interested in acquiring Mariota even after adding veteran QB Sam Bradford in a trade with St. Louis last week. Stay tuned!
