As someone who isn't hesitant to use hyperbole, I can safely say that I've never seen anything like this before. Marcus Mariota had the keys to the city of Philadelphia, and we had no idea if he would actually be an Eagle or not. Here's a review of the crazy final buildup to the 2015 NFL Draft, aka "Mission Marcus."
Pre-Draft
Let's start with Sal Pal. He's a Philly guy, right?
OK, sure, but what do Eagles fans think? I imagine some of them want to upgrade the secondary or add some depth on the offensive line, right?
I decided to make an observation, one that I stand by. I guess some poor bloke from Tennessee searched "Titans" on Twitter and disagreed pretty vehemently with me. Oh well, at least his team got a shoutout in "Cast Away."
How much will Marcus Mariota be making early on his career? I'll confess to not knowing at all before reading this.
It really seems like it's down to the Eagles and the Bears, that is if the Titans trade the pick at all. After doing some quick math, Albert Breer's Tweet doesn't make landing Marcus look very possible for the Chippah.
Let's take look at our conquering hero. There he is! There he is! Cue the Hawaii Five-0 theme (which, by the way, is an absolute jam)!
Nice Humblebrag, Schefter. "Oooh, Mike Trout DM's me!" Now that I think about it, that's not even a Humblebrag. It's just a straight-up brag.
Let's check in with Mike Florio, because that seems like something to do.
And finally, what thi-- OH MY GOD, CHIP WANTS TO TRADE THE ENTIRE TEAM? THIS IS COMPLETE MADNESS!
And finally, this is how a lot of Philadelphia feels, with one definite exception.
Draft begins
Why do the Bucs get ten minutes to make their pick? Haven't they been on the clock since the final day of the season?
Bucs select Jameis Winston No. 1 overall
Jeff Darlington says that the Titans are keeping the pick, and it's not looking great.
I can't even imagine what RickyMania would've been like online.
That Piers Morgan retweet gets me every time. Rest assured, it was an Eagles fan who brought it back into my life. And oh wait, what is this?
That's the tricky thing about the draft in the social media era. If you're addicted to Twitter like I am, you know the picks five minutes before it happens, which takes away a lot of the drama. And boom goes the dynamite:
Titans select Marcus Mariotto No. 2 overall
OK, but it was actually Marcus Mariota
In the end, it was a bit of a subdued reaction from Eagles fans. Sure, they were disappointed, but I think deep down they knew that the odds of moving up 18 spots to the second pick were low. There's a reason that it never happened before. Now Chip Kelly can say he didn't want to "mortgage the future," but if those legitimately respected reporters from the NFL Network are to be believed, we know that he was willing to give up quite a bit.