Scouts Said Marcus Mariota's Lack Of Red Flags Before The Draft Was A Red Flag

TSN – NFL Draft scouts can be a tough bunch, combing through information to look at the pros and cons of potential draft picks. But for Marcus Mariota, his lack of red flags was a concern.

Oregon coach Mark Helfrich told ESPN on Wednesday that he told told by one NFL head coach and general manager that the Heisman Trophy winner’s lack of red flags was a red flag in and of itself.

A popular concern with Mariota is his game translating from college to the NFL, but he lacks the red flags others in his class showed, like fellow Heisman winner Jameis Winston of Florida State.

While Winston was taken by the Buccaneers with the top pick of the 2015 draft, Mariota went No. 2 overall to the Titans. He had been the only remaining unsigned first-round draft pick before signing a four-year deal worth $21 million, including about $14 million as signing bonus on July 21.

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Rule #1 of successful blogging: read a story, form a strong opinion one side or the other, write blog. Try to implement that strategy as often as possible, but I’m kind of stuck with this one. 50/50 on both sides. On the one hand…

NFL draft scouts are so fucking annoying. Every year it’s the same thing – a bunch of nitpicking and whining and griping, and soooo eager to leak it to the first member of the media who will listen. It’s always completely anonymous too of course. You’ll never see a scout own up to their criticism or put a name on it. They’ll just casually drop it to a reporter or blogger or someone that a kid has a major red flag then go back and hide and watch it explode on the internet.

But on the other hand…

I don’t know, in a weird way I kind of agree? I mean I think Mariota is a great kid and seems like an awesome guy, all his coaches and teammates and friends and family rave about him. But honestly can you really expect a bunch of professional athletes and grown men to relate to some college kid who comes in clean as a whistle and wants to lead them into battle? A kid with no red flags, incidents, not even any rumors of doing something remotely bad? Like you never did a SINGLE drug dude? Never got a little bit too drunk and made a fool of yourself, not even one time, in your whole high school or college social life? You were the best player in college football for a major program and you never let loose for just a second? Just really weird. Really really weird. If I’m Mariota I go out and pick up a misdemeanor or something ASAP*, just shelve all this criticism. Get a little tough guy edge to him. Hey Jameis’s teammates can’t stop raving about him, just sayin’. That guy’s got more incidents under his belt than he can count.

*Just spitballing some advice off the top of my head, might want to run my idea past your agent/PR team first.