Philip Rivers was never in serious play for the Titans, Peter King of The MMQB writes. The Chargers made it clear they were not trading him from the get-go and that proved to be the truth. Here’s the latest from King..
- The Eagles never offered players as part of a package to obtain Marcus Mariota. In fact, King says that Chip Kelly never offered the widely rumored packages of either three first-round picks or two first-round picks and Sam Bradford, in an attempt to obtain the No. 2 pick from the Titans. The Titans basically scared off suitors because they continually told teams they wanted to take Mariota and that would it would take a king’s ransom to obtain the pick. [It should be noted that King’s report doesn’t address the mammoth offer reportedly made to the Bucs for the No. 1 pick. Kelly has denied that story but Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk (on Twitter) stands by it.]
- The Bears expressed some interest in moving up from No. 7 to No. 2 to pick Mariota, but the Bears weren’t all that desperate for him and the Titans had no interest in Jay Cutler.
- Ken Whisenhunt, meanwhile, told King that he always wanted Mariota and any talk to the contrary was untrue. “I said it all along—he excited me. I really wanted him. In the end, it wasn’t a difficult decision to stay at two and pick Marcus,” the coach said.
- King gets the sense that if Kelly had gone crazy and offered three ones and a couple of starting defensive players, the Titans brass would have had to sit down and consider it. However, that still probably wouldn’t have gotten it done as the Titans really wanted their quarterback of the future.
- The Mariota pick might have been made possible in part by a conversation between Chiefs coach Andy Reid and Whisenhunt in which the ex-Eagles coach explained how he was glad that he took Donovan McNabb in 1999 rather than trading that pick to Mike Ditka‘s Saints, who were gunning for Ricky Williams.