We are officially underway with the first pick of the 2015 Daily Norseman Community Mock Draft, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers "General Manager" kwarren3 has gotten things started with a bang. Yes, he took a quarterback for the Buccaneers, as many are expecting. . .he just didn't take the quarterback that everyone is expecting.
With the first pick of the 2015 Daily Norseman Community Mock Draft, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers select. . .
Marcus Mariota, quarterback, University of Oregon
Here is kwarren3's explanation of the selection:
The reasoning behind this pick is that the other option, Seminoles QB Jameis Winston has serious off the field issues. With the way "Johnny Football" worked out last year (Both Winston and Manziel were amazing in college, but both could be described as Divas or Immature) Tampa Bay is extremely worried a similar disaster will happen if Tampa went with Winston. Mariota is not even close to Winston off the field. This isn't just about off field actions though, as Mariotas legs can be a game changer as we've seen in recent years with QB's such as Russell Wilson. While Winston is a better Pocket Passer, Mariota is still an excelent QB.
Career Stats:
Passing - 66.8 Pct Completion for 10,796 Yards, 105 TD's to ONLY 4 Int's.
Rushing - 2,237 Yards on 337 Attempts(6.6 Avg) for 29 TD's.
My Thoughts
Well, as I said, it isn't the pick that everyone's expecting, but I like this pick. I'm not sure a team could go wrong with either Mariota or Winston, but if I was in the Buccaneers' shoes and was made to pick one or the other, I'd probably go with Mariota as well. He was just so amazingly productive at Oregon, as kwarren3 details above. . .and, as he also mentions, the odds of Mariota doing something monumentally stupid off the field seem to be significantly lower than Winston's odds. I think both Mariota and Winston could wind up to be very good NFL quarterbacks, but kwarren3 has gone with the "underdog" in this one. . .as much as a guy with a TD-to-interception ratio of 105/14 can be an "underdog."
kwarren3 was even kind enough to include a picture of Mariota decked out in Buccaneers gear to celebrate the selection.
What do you think of this pick, folks?
Pick | Team | General Manager | Pick |
1 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | kwarren3 | Marcus Mariota, QB, Oregon |
2 | Tennessee Titans | BVB fan | |
3 | Jacksonville Jaguars | n s | |
4 | Oakland Raiders | DrivableGuide9 | |
5 | Washington Redskins | tep4 | |
6 | New York Jets | cycloneallnightlong | |
7 | Chicago Bears | lateefthetruthspeaker | |
8 | Atlanta Falcons | berg03 | |
9 | New York Giants | thecraphead | |
10 | St. Louis Rams | VikesFanatic | |
11 | Minnesota Vikings | e.vogel15 | |
12 | Cleveland Browns | Wayne Joseph | |
13 | New Orleans Saints | Austin Blanch | |
14 | Miami Dolphins | SkolChad | |
15 | San Francisco 49ers | Malte | |
16 | Houston Texans | Vikes4lyfe | |
17 | San Diego Chargers | MDFDisc | |
18 | Kansas City Chiefs | Zach_The_Gamecock | |
19 | Cleveland Browns (from Buffalo) | Wayne Joseph | |
20 | Philadelphia Eagles | AVeazey24 | |
21 | Cincinnati Bengals | misterloveSKOL | |
22 | Pittsburgh Steelers | Typically Lazy | |
23 | Detroit Lions | just_rob | |
24 | Arizona Cardinals | Siberia101 | |
25 | Carolina Panthers | SweetTooth | |
26 | Baltimore Ravens | lmoe12 | |
27 | Dallas Cowboys | paulser21 | |
28 | Denver Broncos | SpencerN | |
29 | Indianapolis Colts | CCNorseman | |
30 | Green Bay Packers | CCHOF5yearstoolate | |
31 | New Orleans Saints (from Seattle) | Austin Blanch | |
32 | New England Patriots | raging_cloner |