Five Trades that should happen before the NFL trade deadline

4. QB Marcus Mariota to Chicago for 2020 2nd round draft pick

Marcus Mariota was drafted in the first round of the 2015 NFL draft and has been the starting quarterback for Tennessee up until Ryan Tannehill was promoted to the starter job after a couple of ugly performances. Tannehill came over in the offseason via a trade with the Miami Dolphins, after starting for them for six seasons.

Tennessee did pick up Mariota’s fifth-year option but his poor performance will lead the Titans in another direction, I believe for the 2020 season. The Titans are most likely going to draft a quarterback in the 2020 NFL draft and would let Mariota become a free agent unless they were able to trade him at the deadline.

Mariota’s stats are not fantastic but he’s been able to win some football games in this league with a solid defense behind him. That’s why Chicago makes sense to trade for his services as they have one of the best defenses in the league but are struggling right now with Mitch Trubisky’s play.

Trubisky is in his third season in Chicago and after a shaky first season where he threw for 2,193 yards and a 7 to 7 touchdown to interception rate, he had a decent second season leading the Bears to the playoffs. In his second year, he topped the 3,000-yard mark and improved greatly on his touchdown to interception ratio with a 24 to 12 mark.

Mariota would give Chicago a quarterback for a playoff run with their strong defensive unit already in place to pursue a Super Bowl win. The asking price for the Bears should be around a second-round pick in the draft next year.