A long time ago, Chip Kelly coached football at the University of Oregon, where his quarterback was Marcua Mariota. Not as long ago, Kelly coached the Philadelphia Eagles, where he reportedly tried to trade up in the draft to take Mariota in 2015. That trade with the Titans never materialized, Mariota landed in Tennessee, and the Titans are finally on the verge of ending their playoff drought.
But the story of Kelly -- now without an NFL job after getting fired by the Eagles and 49ers -- and Mariota never really went away. Last year, Peter Schrager of Fox Sports reported that Kelly had offered the Titans a 2015 first-round pick, a 2015 second-round pick, a 2016 first-round pick, any of their quarterbacks and anyone on their defense. Which means, if that report is true, Kelly pretty much offered the Titans anything and everything for Mariota.
On Wednesday, Kelly finally set the record straight during an appearance on Adam Schefter's "Know Them From Adam"
podcast. According to Kelly, he didn't offer the Titans anything because the Titans weren't even taking offers.
"That question didn't come up very often," Kelly said, when asked by Schefter if he could have done anything more to facilitate a trade with the Tennessee Titans to acquire the No. 2 overall pick to draft Mariota. "With Tennessee, they weren't moving off the pick. Rightly so. They were looking for the same thing we were, to get themselves a really top-quality quarterback.
"It really wasn't like ... we didn't really get into a conversation of what we can offer or what we can't offer, because they made it known that they really weren't looking to trade the pick.
"That's all speculation that's out there, you hear stories that 'we offered this, we offered that.' We didn't offer anything because they weren't taking any offers for it."
It ended up being a wise decision by the Titans, because Mariota's lived up to the hype. In two seasons, he's completed 61.6 percent of his passes, averaged 7.6 yards per attempt, thrown 45 touchdowns and 19 interceptions and generated a 93.8 passer rating.
As for Kelly, he's still without a job. He has no one except himself to blame for his failure Philadelphia -- that's what happens when a coach gets rid of LeSean McCoy and DeSean Jackson -- but he got an unfair deal in San Francisco, when he was fired one year after inheriting a horrific roster. At this point, Kelly's future in the league seems bleak, but he should always be remembered as the coach who once guided Nick Foles to a 27-touchdown, two-interception season.
Never forget about that.
