Las Vegas Raiders: 3 trade options for Marcus Mariota

The Las Vegas Raiders could get some really nice value in return for Marcus Mariota should they choose to trade him. What are some options there?

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? It wasn’t all that long ago that former first-round pick and Oregon Ducks superstar QB Marcus Mariota (now a member of the Las Vegas Raiders) was getting benched at halftime against the Denver Broncos when he was still a member of the Tennessee Titans in favor of Ryan Tannehill.

That turned out to be a fortuitous move for the Tennessee Titans that has led to some legitimate success in the last two years, and for Mariota, it has proven to be obviously a “back to the drawing board” situation.

The Las Vegas Raiders and head coach Jon Gruden specifically love to love quarterbacks. Although Gruden hasn’t replaced Derek Carr at this point, he’s undoubtedly brought a lot of guys into the building at the position that he may have liked when some of them came through the Gruden QB Camp on ESPN.

Marcus Mariota was definitely a worthwhile flyer at the quarterback position regardless of Gruden’s affinity for players at that position, and the longer Mariota has spent out of the starting lineup (at least on a full-time basis), the more the demand for his services seems to increase.

As the NFL preseason progresses, trade rumors all over the league are going to ramp up. The Las Vegas Raiders have both Mariota and Nathan Peterman behind Derek Carr. Would they be willing to head into the season without Mariota in the QB room if some team is willing to pay the price?

You never know. If the Raiders don’t trade Mariota in the coming weeks, he might spend another year on their bench before leaving for nothing in the 2022 offseason.

If they want to get a maximum return for the former first-round pick, the 2021 preseason might be the time to trade him.

Which teams make sense to acquire Mariota? Let’s look at three.