Local reports have been saying it for a while, but on Wednesday, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport seemed to fall in line with the idea that Marcus Mariota’s may end up having no trade value.
“That trade market [around Marcus Mariota] has now dried up significantly,” Rapoport said. “Leading to the question ‘could Mariota be released and then pick his own team and get more guaranteed money in the process?’ That might potentially work out better for him and potentially better for the Raiders than anything else.”
An interesting piece of Rapoport’s monologue was the idea that things would potentially work out “better” for Mariota if he is eventually released.
Reading between the lines a little, it should be safe to assume at this point that Mariota would rather be released than traded. If Rapoport’s report didn’t originate in Mariota’s camp, it is at the very least a message that Mariota’s camp would approve of.
Just a guess, but Mariota and the team (or teams) interested in him have to be sweating a little right now. If the Raiders keep Mariota even a few days into free agency it could change the landscape of his opportunities. The number of teams interested in signing him will only shrink as the days go by because not many quarterback-needy teams will be willing to risk not having a starting quarterback on the roster by the start of free agency.
Believe what you will, but it’s a little hard to buy into the idea that Jameis Winston or Ryan Fitzpatrick would be a suitable consolation prize for any general manager that balks at the opportunity to trade for Mariota.
Rather than assume anything now, let’s see what Mariota’s trade value looks like in three weeks when free agency is about to begin. That will be the true test of how teams feel about the former no. 2 overall pick and his apparently intimidating contract.
And one final note…
NFL Network reported last week that the Raiders have received trade offers for Mariota. But only one significant quarterback move has been made in weeks. It would be interesting to know what happened to those offers.
twitter: @raidersbeat
I think we’re ( RAIDERS) at the very least get a 4th round pick and potentially a 2nd rounder if a team gets scared of missing out on him. Mariota is just entering prime years territory and is supposedly healthier than he’s been in a couple years. We need to be patient and wait out the waiters
It would be interesting to know how the information about Mariota’s trade value originated. Asking for a friend
If the Raiders can any kind of decent defence this season Marcus won’t find a better team to play for, but then of course unless it’s all about the money,years ago it use to be about championships, you’d think when you’ve made millions of dollars already it would be more about winning😞