Yes, the Eagles met with Marcus Mariota on Thursday at the Ducks’ pro day in Eugene, Oregon.
No, that doesn’t mean Chip Kelly and the Eagles have changed their stance about not mortgaging the future to move up to the top of the draft to take the quarterback.
Call it due diligence.
“Yeah, there’s about seven quarterbacks that are in the draft and our quarterbacks coach Ryan Day will go watch all of them work out,” Kelly said Thursday evening, shortly after the Eagles signed running back DeMarco Murray. “I bet if you ask Bryce Petty did he meet him, he would [say yes], Brett Hundley would meet Ryan, I would think Jameis [Winston]. That’s just kind of what we do. The fact that we had a scout and a coach at his Pro Day I do not think that’s going to be on the bottom line of ESPN. That’s not cutting edge news. If there is a quarterback out there in this draft we’re gonna visit with him.”
On Thursday, Kelly again clarified his comments from Wednesday’s press conference. Kelly reiterated that the Eagles were philosophically against the idea of trading up for any player, not just Mariota, his former quarterback in Oregon.
The Eagles have made some big splashes in free agency under Kelly. They signed three players Thursday, including two high profile running backs, one of which is the reigning Offensive Player of the Year.
On Wednesday, Kelly made a point to say that he didn’t previously have final say in the draft process. On Thursday, he said that’s how he envisions his team building for the future.
“We want to keep our picks,” Kelly said while clarifying his comments on not trading up to draft Mariota. “We want to get a lot more good players in here, we want to develop those players and eventually we are not gonna really be, hopefully, big guys in free agency. We wanna develop them from the bottom up and have our players on this thing so we’re not going out there in free agency and having to bring six, seven, eight, nine guys in here. That’s philosophically the way we’re gonna approach things.”
Another big need for the Eagles is at wide receiver after Jeremy Maclin left. Kelly said he isn’t sure if the team will be able to make a move to get a receiver in free agency and the team will look hard at this year’s draft class.
Even if they don’t sign a receiver, the Eagles will have had a busy free agency period. In the last week, the Eagles have made drastic changes at several skill positions. Nick Foles and Sam Bradford swapped teams. LeSean McCoy was sent packing for Buffalo. Maclin took a more lucrative deal in Kansas City. And Murray joined the Eagles.
Was that the plan?
“I don’t think we set out to make any drastic changes,” Kelly said. “I just think we try to put together a group that we feel can win in September. So it’s not ‘let’s do this, this and this.’ If one domino falls, what do you do if you lose someone as talented and special a player as LeSean McCoy? What do you do? You lose a player like that, I mean a real special player like that, you better have some people to take his place.”