4. Fear
No matter how confident some people on Twitter are that Marcus Mariota is done and that he will never be the same, those same people are about 5 months away from being mad that Mariota signed a deal with the New England Patriots or the New Orleans Saint.
There will always be a little bit of hesitation that maybe if Mariota can sit out for a year and completely heal up (which hasn’t been a problem this year) and sit in the same offense for more than one year, that he could come in and be the guy that he was in 2016 or in flashes after that season.
The same guy who went 22 of 23 against the Houston Texans last year, beat the Patriots down at home, took down the Dallas Cowboys on MNF, who put up three quick touchdowns in a half against the Falcons this year when they started trying to burn clock in the 2nd quarter, that guy could show up again in the right situation.
People are right to be scared of that because there is a lot to suggest that maybe a 26 year old QB who has never had stability, could still be good in the right circumstances.
Not only that, but do you know how hard it is to find a good quarterback in the NFL? A lot of people think that there are so many young QBs in the NFL right now, but are there really? How is Baker Mayfield doing in Cleveland? Is Josh Allen doing any more in Buffalo than Mariota was doing in Tennessee? How about the Rosen one? How is he doing with the Arizo- oh wait they traded him after one year?
It isn’t a one year issue either, this is a major problem coming out of college.
I took a hard look at the quarterbacks that have come out of the NFL Draft over the last 12 years (that is when the NFL really evolved into a passing league and smart people stopped drafting tight ends and running backs in the top-10) and do you know how many active QBs were drafted in the top-10 over that time?
16, not including last year.
Do you know how many of those players have earned “elite QB” or even “good QB” status?
Just 2. Patrick Mahommes and Carson Wentz.
And that was me being nice. If you really want to look at people that “move heaven and earth to get their QB”
QBs drafted top-5 since 2006:
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) October 16, 2019
Kyler Murray
Baker Mayfield
Sam Darnold
Mitchell Trubisky
Jared Goff
Carson Wentz
Jameis Winston
Marcus Mariota
Blake Bortles
Andrew Luck
RGIII
Cam Newton
Sam Bradford
Matthew Stafford
Mark Sanchez
Matt Ryan
JaMarcus Russell
Vince Young
If nothing else, that should strike fear in your heart even if you think Marcus Mariota is the worst QB in history.