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Where do the Tennessee Titans land in ESPN’s future power ranking

By Will Lomas

LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 21: Tajae Sharpe #19 of the Tennessee Titans celebrates making a catch during the NFL International Series game between Tennessee Titans and Los Angeles Chargers at Wembley Stadium on October 21, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Jack Thomas/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 21: Tajae Sharpe #19 of the Tennessee Titans celebrates making a catch during the NFL International Series game between Tennessee Titans and Los Angeles Chargers at Wembley Stadium on October 21, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Jack Thomas/Getty Images) /
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Where did the Tennessee Titans land in the future power rankings.

The Tennessee Titans lack of respect tour continues with ESPN’s future power rankings as the culprit this time.

Look, before we get into this you should know that these rankings mean about as much as the Madden 20 player ratings do. They are speculative guesses where arbitrary numbers are attached to things that are impossible or incorrectly quantified.

In fact, just look at last year’s power rankings as an example.

12 teams make the playoffs each year in the NFL, but somehow only 6 of the top-12 on the 2018 version of this list made the cut.

So with your grain of salt prepared, let’s look at where the Titans were ranked in this article:

19. Tennessee Titans (3rd in the AFC South, ahead of Jacksonville)

You should go check out the article that I linked to above, but basically their entire explanation for the ranking boils down to this quote:

"“But the question that hovers over the franchise is whether Marcus Mariota is the long-term answer at quarterback. He enters the final year of his rookie contract and must make strides. He has unique qualities and outstanding football character, but must be more consistent and prolific as a passer. If Mariota steadies his play, not only will he cash in with a lucrative new deal from the Titans, but this team’s future outlook will be quite favorable.”"

Their analysis on what could go wrong and what could go right both hinge on the same thing: Marcus Mariota.

I get that quarterback is an extremely important position in the NFL, I do. However, do we really think that Mariota has been at his best the last two years?

No, obviously not. He has dealt with injuries, inconsistent receivers, star players going down, teammates quitting, and a host of other things.

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So why in the world would you assume that he is going to be anything other than better in 2019 when (in all likelihood) he won’t have a nightmare situation like that again?

Let’s forget the fact that if he started for 10-12 years he would probably be one of the top-5 QBs in history in terms of 4th quarter comebacks or that he has had do deal with injuries the last two seasons.

If Mariota is a good runner and an average passer his entire career who can hit some deep passes but will sail some on the outside, can the Titans win a Super Bowl with him?

The answer is yes, and the blueprint is playing out right in front of our eyes. Give him the best protection you can (re-sign Taylor Lewan, sign Rodger Saffold, draft Nate Davis), give him a talented group of pass catchers (Corey Davis, A.J. Brown, Adam Humphries, Delanie Walker) and stack the defense on the other side (all the defenders).

Saying it all falls on Marcus Mariota is lazy and it ignores the team that has been built around him. How can you prop up teams like the Baltimore Ravens, Dallas Cowboys, and Chicago Bears when they arguably have a worse supporting cast and AT LEAST an equal if not worse QB than Mariota?

It is all subjective and this ranking is less to do with what should be on the field for the Tennessee Titans over the next few and more to do about the lack of nationally recognized “talent” the team has.

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