The Marcus Mariota ultimatum: What should the Tennessee Titans do?
By Will Lomas
What do the Tennessee Titans do about Marcus Mariota?
This isn’t a fun conversation, but we need to talk about exactly what the Tennessee Titans are dealing with in the Marcus Mariota situation.
After the entire roster (other than a few key players) let down the Tennessee Titans fans with a loss to the less talented Indianapolis Colts on what should have been an historic day celebrating the careers of Steve McNair and Eddie George, the fan base is in a depression.
All offseason the fan base argued and bothered with infighting as national media members talked about QB controversies that didn’t exist and stoked the flames of Mariota holding the team back.
Everyone was quiet after Week 1 when Mariota helped lead the Titans to a win totaling 43 points and a 30 point deficit. Those who did comment would rather talk about Derrick Henry‘s screen and A.J. Brown‘s catches instead of the QB they were ready to slam when they expected him to get crunched by the Browns front seven.
However, almost on cue the Titans lost to the Colts in a game where everyone was bad, but the blame is falling on Marcus Mariota. The problem is he isn’t doing enough to overcome these issues on his own.
What I mean by that is, Mariota is probably going to have the career arc of Alex Smith or maybe Eli Manning. He is someone who is going to do enough to win you games at times and will rarely have games where he actively lose you game, but in between those peaks and valleys will be months of games where he is going to neither hurt nor help your chances at winning a game.
Now, gut reaction is to say “Well get a guy who can win those games!” but it isn’t that simple. The hit rate on rookie QBs isn’t good and the price tag is often too high to even consider unless you are coming off of a bad year or luck into a top-10 pick.
That brings us to the ultimatum:
Would you rather have a QB that you will win ~9 games per season with and make it to the playoffs every other year giving you a shot to go on a run? Or would you rather take a chance at drafting a different QB hoping that he is the one, but knowing that it could send you into a decade long tailspin?