Chip Kelly tried to move up to draft Marcus Mariota, but the price tag was too rich.
After watching Nick Foles plateau last season, the Eaglesswapped him for Sam Bradford before going after Mariota. Kelly acknowledged that with the importance of the quarterback position, the coach must keep swinging until he hits on a Pro Bowl signal-caller.
"New England, Pittsburgh, Green Bay -- (Tom] Brady, (Ben) Roethlisberger, (Aaron) Rodgers. It all starts with the quarterback," Kelly recently said, via CSN Philly. "And then you have to build the roster around that. And we're trying to, and we think Sam's got potential, we think Mark (Sanchez has) potential.
"We've got to build it around it, but when you look at all the winning organizations ... if you want to play with the odds as we want to play, it's got to be with a quarterback situation and then the only way you're going to get a quarterback is you got to be really not very good so you finish in the top 1-2 in the draft. If we're not very good and we finish with the top 1-2 in the draft, I don't think I'm going to be here, so we better find another way to find a quarterback. And that's what we did with Sam."
It's true that given his moves this offseason, Kelly likely wouldn't last in Philly if the Eagles finished with one of the top two picks in the draft.
However, we should point out that none of the three signal-callers he cited -- Brady, Roethlisberger and Rodgers -- were drafted No. 1 or No. 2 overall. In fact, none were drafted in the top 10. The Denver Broncos got their Pro Bowl quarterback via free agency, as did the New Orleans Saints.
Bradford is Kelly's next swing at solidifying the quarterback position in Philly, if that fails, he'll keep hacking -- assuming he's around to take the at-bats.
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