Boston Globe says QB situation is “wide open”
This is a new take.
NOT.
The national media continues to peddle this nonsense over and over again, with the Boston Globe’s Ben Volin being the latest to beat the drum of this phony narrative.
His take, which is that the Tennessee Titans’ quarterback situation is “wide open” prior to the start of the season, just goes to show why beat writers of a completely different team shouldn’t be commenting on specific details of another.
"Finally, Tennessee’s quarterback position looks surprisingly wide open. The Titans may have given Marcus Mariota his fifth-year option this year ($20.922 million salary), but they aren’t giving him a contract extension, and in fact gave him strong competition by signing former Dolphins starter Ryan Tannehill. While Mariota hasn’t stood out this preseason (this column was written before Saturday night’s game), Tannehill threw for 130 yards and two touchdowns in the first exhibition game. And one report from ESPN this past week stated that Mariota is no lock to start in Week 1, with some of the Titans coaches preferring Tannehill, who ran a similar offense in Miami. Even if Mariota does win the starting job at first, he certainly won’t be on a long leash."
The “report” Volin is talking about refers to that of ESPN’s Dianna Russini, who based what she said on “the tone” in Tennessee. Real strong.
Volin then went on to try and clean up his mess, but didn’t exactly address everything that was said in his article.
A lot of Titans fans are not pleased with me writing that Mariota is on a short leash this year. If he had job security, would the Titans have signed a starting-caliber backup and given him $5m in incentives? And would the QB agree to it if he thought he had no chance to play?
— Ben Volin (@BenVolin) August 18, 2019
Or, maybe the Titans didn’t want to run Gabbert back out there for another season if Mariota got hurt? After all, Gabbert’s poor play in place of Mariota was a big reason the Titans didn’t make the playoffs.
Here’s the two parts he left out in his Twitter explanation that Titans fans are really upset about.
"Finally, Tennessee’s quarterback position looks surprisingly wide open. Even if Mariota does win the starting job at first, he certainly won’t be on a long leash."
All Titans fans aren’t necessarily mad at the short leash part, it’s the inaccurate statement that the starting quarterback spot is “wide open.”
That would imply that Ryan Tannehill has a chance to take it from Mariota before Week 1, which he does not if the Oregon product is healthy. Tannehill even said “I don’t think that’s an option at this point” when asked if he could start Week 1.
Now, that’s not to say Mariota will definitely keep the starting job the entire season. There is obviously a chance that, should Mariota implode and be the reason the Titans are losing games during the regular season, he could be replaced by Tannehill at some point.
However, this idea that there is some question as to who will start the season behind center is not up for debate. Mariota has received all first-team reps in both preseason games, and he has the backing of both his head coach and general manager.