Mariota; The Should Be Number One

During his college career Oregon quarterback, Marcus Mariota, has accomplished more than most  other quarterbacks ever have. After winning every award possible in 2014 and taking the Ducks to a 13-2 record and a BCS National Championship appearance, Mariota has decided to take his talents to the NFL. However, even with Mariota’s tremendous career, mock drafts and many sports analysts have him as the second best quarterback in the 2015 NFL draft.

Throughout Mariota’s miraculous career he has thrown for 10,796 yards, 105 touchdowns, 2,237 rush yards, 29 rushing touchdowns, and 2 receiving touchdowns. While accomplishing this, Mariota has only 14 interceptions throughout his entire career.  Including his awards, Mariota can easily be considered one of the greatest college players of all time and has proven that he should be given the opportunity to compete in the NFL.

Many mock drafts have Florida State quarterback, Jameis Winston, being picked as the number one overall pick in the 2015 NFL draft. Winston has everything that describes a great NFL quarterback physically, and showed the nation that he is a miraculous athlete on his way to winning the 2014 BCS National Championship as a true freshman. Scoring a total of 44 touchdowns in his freshman year and passing for over 4,000 yards while on his way to win the Heisman award, Jameis showed that he has the ability to dominate and win. Nevertheless, Jameis has not showed anything that should put him ahead of Marcus Martiota in the 2015 draft.

So why do mock drafts have Jameis ahead of Mariota? Many analysts say Mariota has too much of a run tendency, while others say Jameis has more of a pro style play. There has been astounding college quarterbacks that haven’t panned out in the NFL because of the way they played. Many relied to much on their legs and didn’t have a strong enough arm such as Tim Tebow and Robert Griffin III. Yet Mariota has shown that he has an incredibly powerful arm and doesn’t use his legs unless he needs to. Also, Mariota has shown that when he throws the ball he is almost perfect, throwing only 14 interceptions throughout his whole career. Mariota has shown he doesn’t make mistakes and competes as smart as possible. On the other hand Jameis Winston has proven that he does make mistakes. Through his entire sophomore seseason Winston made questionable decisions in the first half of almost every game. In both players “breakout” year they passed for over 4,000 yards, however, Mariota passed for 400 more yards, threw 6 fewer interceptions, and ran for 11 more touchdowns. In almost every aspect Marcus Mariota has outdone Jameis Winston but for some reason continues to be overshadowed by him.

When NFL teams look at prospects and decided whom they want in the draft they take a lot into consideration. To fully understand the best opportunity for the team they look at college performance, play tendency, combined performance, and personal life. Neither Mariota or Winston has run a pro style offense in college and both have proven to be outstanding players in college. The biggest difference in draft stock is off the field trouble. Through his three years at Oregon, Mariota has never been in any off field trouble. On the other hand, Winston has been nothing but trouble. In his freshmen year, Jameis was accused of sexual assault. In his sophomore year, he was charged with theft, suspended for the first half of a game for disciplinary reasons, accused of rape once again, and accused of accepting money for autographs. These off the field issues obviously make Winston a risky draft pick, especially in the first round.

With the successful career and respectable conduct of Marcus Mariota, the number one overall pick should be no question. Even with the past results of mobile quarterbacks in the NFL, drafting Mariota has fewer risks than drafting Winston with all his off the field issues. Marcus Mariota should be the number one pick and will prove to be the smarter and more reliable choice throughout his career.