ESPN’s NFL Draft analyst Mel Kiper thinks one potential landing spot for Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota could be with the Las Vegas Raiders.
Could the Las Vegas Raiders be a landing spot for soon-to-be former Tennessee Titans quarterback, Marcus Mariota? ESPN’s Mel Kiper seems to think it could happen.
Kiper said so on the First Draft podcast recently, and believes that Mariota going to Vegas would create a situation in which the former No. 2 overall pick could eventually take over the starting job from incumbent starter, Derek Carr.
When trying to peg where Mariota will land in 2020, it’s important to target teams that have a vulnerability at quarterback that will give the Oregon product a chance to start in 2020.
While Carr didn’t have an awful year in 2019, people seem to be down on him and his future with the Raiders seems a bit cloudy at the moment.
Not only does this scenario present Mariota with a chance to start, but he’d also be near the west coast, closer to his home state of Hawaii and alma mater, the University of Oregon.
Also likely on Mariota’s list will be teams who have a quarterback that has proven to have injury issues in the past. The Philadelphia Eagles, for example, could be one of those teams.
If you’re interested, ESPN analyst Bill Barnwell laid out several scenarios that could see Mariota ending up with teams like the Eagles, New Orleans Saints, Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Chargers.
Mariota was taken by the Titans in the 2015 NFL Draft, and after an up-and-down career over five seasons with Tennessee that saw him get benched and replaced last season in favor of Ryan Tannehill, Mariota will almost certainly be moving on to another team.
Where Mariota ends up will be also dependent upon how the chips fall with other free-agent signal-callers during the course of the offseason, and this situation will be one of the more interesting story lines to watch for Titans fans.