Trades! Trades Everywhere!

by Mario Granata
Draft Day Spoiler Alert
As the ongoing debate of the Philadelphia Eagles and Chip Kelly with their blind dedication to the thought of drafting Marcus Mariota to run his high octane offense, Hashtag Sports will provide you with some behind the scenes information that will ruin your surprise of the events that will occur when Roger Goodell takes the stage in Illinois later this month.

Although this scenario might seem a bit outside-the-box, Hashtag Sports has it on good authority that they will take place when the draft takes place in Chicago this year.  

Philadelphia has not been shy in their plight to make some bold moves when it comes to free agency. They traded LeSean McCoy, signed two starting running backs and traded for a former first overall pick in Sam Bradford.  

Reports are surfacing now that since Chip Kelly was unable to ‘recruit’ Frank Gore, he needed someone to make the pitch to DeMarco Murray to get him to the Eagles, and who better than Bradford, Murray’s former quarterback at Oklahoma to do the bidding?  Now that Bradford has served his purpose, Kelly can get the quarterback he truly wants.  We hope you are sitting down.

If and when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers draft Jamesis Winston, Tennessee’s phone will be ringing off the hook for a swap for the number 2 pick. However, Tennessee isn’t buying, and with the bevvy of needs that the Titans have, a quarterback isn’t going to solve all their problems. Swapping Bradford to the Titans is not an ideal situation for them, as the last first round quarterback they had on the roster retired after his rookie contract expired due to injury. With word that Bradford considered doing the same, Tennessee stays put at #2.

Losing the ability to trade with the Titans, Chip Kelly and the Eagles have to find another route to the Mariota sweepstakes.  Since Cleveland isn’t willing to play the waiting game with the Eagles for Bradford, they have to look at different options via trade. Since they are in the market for a quarterback and have a ton of cap space, the Browns trade their 19th overall pick (from the Bills) with Connor Shaw to Chicago for Jay Cutler and later round selections. The Browns can absorb his cap hit, and are willing to pay first round money for him AND still hold the 13th overall pick.  

From there, Chicago then calls Philadelphia for the services of Sam Bradford for the 19th overall pick that they got from Cleveland. So, as it stands, the Bears have Bradford for their first round pick, Cleveland has Cutler and their original 13th overall pick, and Philadelphia has the 19th and 20th overall picks in the draft.  

Originally, Philadelphia would try to trade with the Titans, but they ultimately have the two picks that they need to deal to move up in the top 5.  The only teams who are a threat to take Mariota are the Redskins and the Jets at pick 5 and pick 6 (no pun intended).

Once the Eagles and Kelly have the two picks to bargin with, and seeing that the draft class is loaded with wide receivers, the Raiders will be the Eagles target at #4.  Tennessee will pass on Mariota, and the Jaguars drafted Blake Bortles last season with the 3rd overall pick.  Philadelphia will then flip the 19th and 20th overall picks to the Raiders for the 4th overall pick.  Now, there might be a player or future draft picks exchanged, seeing how bad Kelly wants Mariota, they might be able to squeeze a 3rdrounder out of the Eagles as well.  Kelly won’t care as long as he gets Mariota.  

Leaving out any other suitors in the mix, the Eagles will draft Marcus Mariota with the 4th overall pick, sending in motion the dynamic offense, in Kelly’s eyes, that will be the next coming of Bill Walsh in the pass happy, fast paced NFL that we as fans see today.  

So, when it is all said and done, the Bears have Bradford and Shaw to back him up, the Browns have Cutler, the Raiders can have their future wide receivers for Derek Carr and the Philadelphia Eagles will draft Mariota.  Seems impossible to happen right?  Well its not.  

Now, if you took the time to read this article, HashtagSports would like you to do one more thing while you are pondering this improbable twist of events.  Starting with the first paragraph when the explanation took place, all the words that are italicized, take the first letter of each of those words and write them down.  We’ll wait.  You done?  Now look at the calendar.

Enjoy your APRIL FOOLS everyone.  Thanks for reading.