Will Marcus Mariota Buck Heisman Trend in the NFL?

Oregon Ducks quarterback and future top draft pick Marcus Mariota is one of the most prolific college quarterbacks of all-time. He is a Heisman Trophy winner, a three-year starter, a phenomenal athlete with track star speed and a rocket for an arm. Yet the odds are against him.

Mariota’s selection as this year’s Heisman Trophy winner is both a blessing and a curse, if you believe in that sort of thing, as quarterbacks who earn that honor don’t always turn out to be good NFL players. If you don’t believe me, just look at the history of the deal. You’ve heard of players like Chris Weinke, Jason White, and Eric Crouch? What about Matt Leinart, Troy Smith, or some guy named Tim Tebow?

Cam Newton has done pretty well for himself after winning a Heisman Trophy at Auburn, but he’s far from a top 10 quarterback at this point. What about the injury plagued Sam Bradford, or the dramatic Robert Griffin III?

Truth be told, the jury is still out on both of those young players, but you get the idea here — winning the Heisman Trophy does not a good NFL quarterback make. Marcus Mariota faces a battle against not only a bunch of NFL players who will be gunning for him — he faces the battle of history.

Carson Palmer has turned an injury-riddled career into a pretty decent one, actually (aside from his stint with the Raiders), but for the most part, if you have won the Heisman Trophy since the turn of the millennium, you likely have had a rough go of things in the NFL.

Currently, Mariota is pretty widely considered to be the top quarterback prospect available in this year’s draft, just ahead of last year’s winner Jameis Winston. Mariota and Winston are both coming into the NFL spotlight with a ton of questions, and even more pressure. Both players are capable of bucking the Heisman trend, but they are going to need significant seasoning.

The general expectation for top picks anymore is that they can come in and play. I don’t know if Mariota can do that immediately, or if he even should. Whatever team is picking in the top 10 of the draft is doing so for a reason unless they get in via trade, so throwing a young quarterback to the wolves is hardly the best of ideas…unless you’re Andrew Luck (not a Heisman winner).

Mariota’s skillset is incredible. He’s got the requisite size, arm strength, intelligence, moxie, and speed to boot. He’s a player who is the complete package in terms of what you’d design an athlete to be if you could, and yet, questions remain. Some have compared him to the aforementioned RG3, and some have compared his game to that of Colin Kaepernick. Some feel like he has a bright future as a legit top overall pick, and some feel like he’s more of a risk and perhaps not a ‘franchise’ guy.

Mel Kiper Jr. at ESPN said there are no franchise quarterbacks in this year’s draft, and I think he may be on to something. Mariota has proven in his collegiate career that he is capable of hanging with NFL players. He is making the college game look easy right now, and over the last three years has gotten better and better.

I can’t wait to see what happens with Mariota throughout the draft process, and I believe like many others that he will be a high pick, perhaps the unquestioned number one overall pick, ahead of even Jameis Winston. Mariota will be the face of some NFL franchise, and will have an expectation to come in and play right away, unless there is some special circumstance.

He faces a really difficult road, but I think Mariota is built to overcome the obstacles in his way. He has always struck me as the type of player that is capable of leading an NFL franchise but he will need some help. I don’t view him as on the same level as Andrew Luck, but he can be a top 10 quarterback in the league some day. Whatever team takes him is just going to need to have the patience to see it through.