This story should start with the caveat that the Kansas City Chiefs select at No. 18 overall in the first-round of the 2015 NFL Draft and Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota is expected by most NFL pundits to go in the first handful of selections.
That being said, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is a man who knows NFL quarterbacks and there may be no player in April's draft more perfect for what it is Reid has Kansas City doing on offense than Mariota.
"We keep talking about the perfect marriage (remarriage?) of a Chip Kelly offense and his perfect quarterback in Mariota. But I think of what Andy Reid did with a young Donovan McNabb -- a very good athlete at QB with movement skills but also a lot of projection left as an accurate passer -- not to mention work he's done to maximize the potential of other QBs, and I think he'd be fantastic working with Mariota," wrote ESPN's Mel Kiper.
While Reid already has Alex Smith playing very well in his roll-out heavy, play-action based passing offense, Smith doesn't possess the same upside and untapped potential that Mariota would bring to the table. Smith finished last season with 3,265 passing yards and 18 touchdowns for a passer rating of 93.4 - nothing to scoff at certainly.
Is good enough good enough for Reid, though?
Despite the career resurgence and the fact that Smith and Reid have led the Chiefs to a much more competitive place and two second-place AFC West finishes, they've only reached the playoffs once, losing to the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Wild Card game.
Smith is also 30 and inching ever closer to the end of his NFL career. While we've seen several quarterbacks play well into their 30's recently - Tom Brady, Peyton Manning - it's the exception and not the norm.
While the cost to move up for Mariota would seem prohibitive at first glance, if Reid believes he's the piece that can take the Chiefs from good to great it would be hard to fault him for exploring just such a trade-up scenario.
Reid was even asked about Mariota - who he referred to as "a pretty good football player" - at the NFL owners meetings in Phoenix this week and said that most of what he knows of the young signal-caller has come from picking the brain of electrifying running back De'Anthony Thomas.
"Just from afar, I listen to what his teammates say," Reid said, per ESPN. "I've got one on my team and I talked to him about him. I asked him about him. And he goes, 'This guy is unbelievable. Great leader, great person.'
"Again, this is from afar [but] I didn't see any red flags."
Mariota brought an incredible amount of athleticism and intelligence to the signal-caller position for the Ducks. He finished his junior season with 4,454 yards passing, 42 touchdowns and just four interceptions and added 770 yards and 15 touchdowns on the ground.
He's a projection for any team that isn't Philadelphia because of the spread offense he helmed in college and will unquestionably need a season or two to acclimate to the NFL and learning to read defenses and work his way through progressions.
What at first seems like a knock though, may only serve to increase his fit in a spot like Kansas City - with Smith already in place, Mariota could spend the initial portion of his NFL career learning at the feet of Reid and Smith before eventually taking over the reins of the offense and the franchise once he'd garnered enough seasoning.
