Chip Kelly Comments on Marcus Mariota, Potential 2015 NFL Draft Trade

Philadelphia Eagles fans who were holding out hope that Chip Kelly and the team would find a way to move up in the draft to select Oregon's Marcus Mariota had their hopes dashed Wednesday afternoon.

Speaking at a press conference that touched on the trades that sent LeSean McCoy to Buffalo and Nick Foles to St. Louis in exchange for Sam Bradford, as well as the team's free-agency moves, Kelly addressed the topic of Mariota. 

Per Jeff McLane of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Kelly quickly dismissed any notions that the team would be trading for him:

And Dan Graziano of ESPN passed along the following quote explaining why moving up to get Mariota isn't in the team's plans:

Eliot Shorr-Parks of NJ.com shared this final tidbit:

For Eagles fans crossing their fingers that this is all a smoke screen and the team will still find a way to get Mariota—and that appears increasingly unlikely by the day—Chris B. Brown of Grantland offered this:

A lot is going to happen between now and the draft, but the tone of Kelly's press conference—at least when the topic of Bradford and Mariota was raised—appeared to signal that Bradford will be the Eagles' guy.

Of course, Kelly has pulled off enough surprise moves this offseason that the Bradford trade and this press conference could be one last sleight of hand. But given the holes the Eagles still have on their roster, they can't afford to give up the number of picks it would take to move up to get Mariota. It seems more likely than not at this point that Bradford will be the starting quarterback in Philadelphia come next season.