Marcus Mariota is being criticized by some NFL teams after downplaying the importance of being the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft.
It may look like a foregone conclusion that Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston is going to be the first overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft and apparently Marcus Mariota shares that assumption, which has some teams upset.
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Mariota had fairly innocent comments earlier this week when he said being the top overall pick wasn’t a huge thing to him but now those comments are finding him in hot water.
According to Mike Freeman of Bleacher Report, he’s hearing more than a few NFL teams are none too pleased to hear those comments from Mariota.
Just passing along. Don't blame messenger: more than a few teams not happy Mariota said he doesn't care if he goes No. 1 overall.
— mike freeman (@mikefreemanNFL) March 20, 2015
Why would they be upset with those comments?
They likely want to see Mariota’s competitive nature here and see if he’ll fight for the top spot and see if he’ll be more vocal about it. This is the same criticism that has followed Mariota throughout his time at Oregon because he used to be a very shy kid who didn’t always show the outward emotion you want to see from the quarterback and leader of a team.
Some teams may not place much importance into his quotes and will choose to rather see his personality and how he responds to challenges at a private workout before investing a high first round pick in him.
This is also likely the NFL nitpicking with so much time between the NFL Scouting Combine and the draft starting at the end of April and finding any reason to knock a draft prospect, even with something as innocuous as this.
Would a third round prospect be knocked for saying being the No. 1 overall pick isn’t a huge thing? What if he said it was? Would that improve his draft stock?
Mariota is likely going to be drafted somewhere in the top-10 picks regardless of his comments and could go as high as the No. 2 pick, which is a pretty ‘huge’ thing.
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