By Lewis Gould
Wow!
This wasn’t Jimmy Kempski, who has no known NFL sources, or some knucklehead like Josh Innes who is singlehandedly ruining WIP’s ratings.
This was Adam Schefter, of ESPN, perhaps the best-wired reporter on the NFL beat.
He’s the guy who reported emphatically that DeMarco Murray was on the verge of signing a free agent contract with the Eagles last month when everyone else was pissing on that report from a great height.
Schefter was right about Murray, so when he showed up this morning on ESPN radio to talk about the Eagles and Marcus Mariota, my ears perked up.
Here’s a transcript:
“Well I just think all this conversation about the No. 2 pick and what the Titans are going to do with it is 100% justified. I believe that pick is firmly in play. There were teams on the phone with the Titans throughout the day yesterday. And there are going to be multiple teams, multiple teams making an effort to try to come up to No. 2.
And all along, when you go back to this conversation from a couple of weeks ago, there were people around the league who thought, that essentially, Sam Bradford would be a chip for Chip Kelly. And the more you speak to people, the more you think that that’s going to be a distinct possibility at some point today.
And that to me is the real drama because this could impact a lot of different teams. The question is: do the Browns go and trade a [first round] pick to the Eagles for Sam Bradford? And the Eagles don’t do that unless they believe they can find a way to get up to No. 2.
But to think that the Eagles wouldn’t explore this, I believe would be a mistake. Because Chip Kelly has said that he believes Marcus Mariota is the best quarterback, the best player in this draft. Well if you can go get the best quarterback, or best player in the draft, why are you not going to go try and do that?
So I think at some point today, I will not be surprised if the Philadelphia Eagles make that attempt. And if they do, the only way they could do it would be with the assistance of the Cleveland Browns, who are willing and able to aid their efforts to try to get up to No. 2. […]
So I think here’s the tip off today. If we get a trade today, with the Philadelphia Eagles and Cleveland Browns, hold on to your seat-belts because that means that Philadelphia has got the ammunition to go up to No. 2. “
