Weekend Reading: More Ducks On the Way?

Here are some Eagles-related news and notes to check out this weekend.

Les Bowen spoke with some of Ed Marynowitz‘s former mentors about Chip Kelly‘s new right-hand man:

“Once he left [grad assistant] coaching here, I put him in the recruiting room. Within a short time, he got the director’s job of recruiting. Very detailed guy,” [George] O’Leary said. “He could spot talent. He didn’t go to books and look at two stars or three stars or four stars . . . he could evaluate tape, and evaluate tape very well.

“It didn’t surprise me when he went to Miami or Alabama. He knows what it takes to win. He knows the kind of players you’re going to need to win. I think he understands the loyalty factor. I think that’s always been big with me, as far as you trusting people who are working for you, that’ll work and do the job.”

At Central Florida, Marynowitz never got on the field – O’Leary said he was “not talented enough to play at this level” – but he used his time there to earn a bachelor’s in business management, plus masters’ degrees in business administration and sports business management.

He also encountered the first blot on his record.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk told a Miami radio station that the Eagles are still in the running for Marcus Mariota:

“I would put Philly at the top of the list,” Florio said on the Joe Rose Show Friday on 560 WQAM. “I’ve got a feeling they’re going to do something. Ed Marynowitz, the new VP of player personnel, said yesterday that yes, Chip Kelly said he won’t mortgage the future, we have an idea of what it means to mortgage the future.

“Sam Bradford could be put into a bucket for trade that would include the Browns getting Sam Bradford and then two or three first-round picks going up to a team in the Top 5, the Eagles getting Mariota, and ultimately I think the Eagles can pull this off with Bradford, the 20th pick this year, which they have, a first-round pick next year, and maybe another two or three on top of it. If you look at that in isolation that feels like a lot less than you would think it would take to go from 20 all the way up to two, three, four, or five.”

Meanwhile, Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports looks at what it would take for the Eagles to move up and select the former Oregon Duck:

I could easily foresee a scenario where Kelly flops Bradford in a three-way deal with the Browns, with Cleveland getting the former first-overall pick and the Eagles flipping the first round pick they get for him, plus a future top pick in say 2016 to grab Mariota. Kelly made a huge impression on [Jimmy] Haslam, the Browns’ owner, when he interviewed for their job a few years back. He knows he could do business with them if need be and he knows the Browns will trade one of their number one picks for Bradford assuming it’s not part of a package to get Mariota.

Sure, all of this may be a little outside the box. It’s not the norm. But people have to understand that with this new collective bargaining agreement, and with these draft picks such a cheap, fixed cost now, the business has changed. In the past you may have had to pay a premium when trading up for a quarterback in terms of what you had to pay him, and the element of “signability” mattered. No longer. Doesn’t matter who his agent is, or that you got him via trade or that he’s going to throw a football for a living rather than block or run. The second overall pick is going to cost you just the same financially, and that only helps keep trade options alive.

Andrew Brandt of MMQB offers a few thoughts on the Eagles signing Tim Tebow:

1) It is still puzzling that no other team would sign Tebow to compete for a third-string position. At the very least, Tebow brings a positive and supportive attitude to the offseason workout program and can also show some different looks in training camp. As to whether he would make the Eagles, or any team, that is a much more difficult question to answer.

2) Signing Tebow is a negative endorsement of third-stringer Matt Barkley, whom the Eagles have openly shopped without success. It appears Barkley will eventually be offered up for a ham sandwich.

3) Speaking of Barkley, there must be some interesting conversations going on between Kelly and Barkley’s agent, David Dunn, who also happens to be Kelly’s agent (and Mark Sanchez’s).

Dion Jordan is not attending the Dolphins’ offseason conditioning workouts, and some are wondering if he’ll be out of Miami before long. More from PFT.

Jordan has been a disappointment in every sense of the word for the Dolphins, who gave a first- and a second-round pick to move up to get him. He’s responded with 3.0 sacks in two seasons, and they haven’t been able to really figure out what position he plays, bouncing from defensive end to linebacker.

And judging by their tone, they might be open to the idea of bouncing him elsewhere.

With his Oregon pedigree, the Eagles would land on the list of usual suspects if they tried to trade him, despite the fact he hasn’t torn an ACL lately.