Rule of three says Tennessee Titans QB Marcus Mariota set for career year

NASHVILLE, TN - DECEMBER 03: Marcus Mariota #8 of the Tennessee Titans celebrates after a touchdown run against the Houston Texans during the first half at Nissan Stadium on December 3, 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TN - DECEMBER 03: Marcus Mariota #8 of the Tennessee Titans celebrates after a touchdown run against the Houston Texans during the first half at Nissan Stadium on December 3, 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images)
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(Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
(Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)

What is the Rule of Three and what does it have to do with Marcus Mariota?

I checked it out, and was fascinated with this “Rule of Three” and what it meant for passing games in the NFL. McFarland best summarizes the theory saying:

"“Essentially, the premise is in order to consistently beat quality defenses an offense needs to have three solid receiving targets on the field at all times. In this case, a solid receiving threat can be thought of as a player who has a diverse route tree and excels versus both man and zone coverage. If you only have one, they will be focused on and often taken away by better defenses. If you only have two, that will be taken away by upper tier defenses. If you have three, it becomes hard to schematically match up in all instances.”"

The closes thing the Titans had to this was in 2017 for the brief stints that Delanie Walker, Corey Davis and Rishard Matthews were all on the field at the same time.

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Even that wasn’t a great trio since Davis battled a lower body injury all season and wasn’t really healthy and trusted until the post season game against the New England Patriots.

Not only do the Titans pass the “Rule of Three”, they have a player to spare with Corey Davis manning WR1 and with A.J. Brown, Adam Humphries and Delanie Walker all figuring to feature heavily in the offense.

So, how will the new and improved weapons help the Titans passing game based off of an analytical model?

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