Tennessee Titans: Reviewing Marcus Mariota’s Rookie Year

The Tennessee Titans hit gold with the 2nd overall pick in the 2015 NFL draft. The selection of Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota proved to be the right one. The young passer showed grit, passion, and leadership during his rookie tenure. Here we’ll take a look at how the signal caller faired in his debut season.

Ruston Webster wasn’t good during his time as the General Manager for the Tennessee Titans. One of the few selections Webster got right, however, was Marcus Mariota. Mariota showed great poise, competiveness, and leadership during his rookie year. Often playing with lack luster talent around him and often hobbled by injury, the former Oregon Duck showed he is ready to lead an NFL team.

Taking snaps behind one of the worst offensive lines, Mariota broke numerous franchise records his rookie year. He posted a total of 22 touchdowns. He also had a solid quarterback rating of a 91.5. Many believe he would come out of college and wow fans with his speed, and he did.- just not as often as people were assuming. Mariota had a total of 252 rushing yards including the 87-yard touchdown run against the Jaguars.

Behind that horrific offensive line, Mariota often played injured. He refused to be removed from the game when he hurt his ankle against the Browns or sprained his knee against the Dolphins. He showed something not many quarterbacks possess now-a-days, grit. The man is a tough football player and is only going to miss the game if he absolutely has to. A quarterback like that can really ignite a team.

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Along with that, the Hawaii native surprisingly was always looking to pass first, something you always want to see out of athletic rookie quarterbacks. He doesn’t allow his running ability to hinder him, he only uses it when he feels like he absolutely has to.

The Titans used Mariota in different ways. Not often did they run the traditional read-option offense we all fell in love with at Oregon. They used him like a regular, everyday quarterback, most of the time. There were plays where he was down the field catching touchdown passes.

He also displayed great accuracy in short and intermediate routes, as good as almost anyone I’ve seen in their rookie season. Mariota can put the ball anywhere he wants within around 25 yards from the line of scrimmage.

Year two is a big one for young quarterbacks. It’s the year where you show your rookie year wasn’t a fluke and you’re ready to take charge of a franchise. Of course you can’t do that yourself.

After seeing what trials and tribulations Mariota dealt with last season due to lacking talent on the roster, the Titans realized they needed change. And change they delivered. They traded down 13 spots in the fourth round of the upcoming draft to acquire the 2014 NFL Offensive Player of the Year from the Eagles in DeMarco Murray. Having that solid workhorse running back will make any quarterback’s job easier.

It didn’t stop there, however. The Titans were able to lure under-rated center Ben Jones away from the division rival Texans, while also signing Rishard Matthews from Miami. Although they still have two big holes on the offensive line to fill, the team is ready to take a substantial step forward in 2016 with it’s franchise signal caller.

Mariota excelled with play-action plays. Ranking amongst the league’s best with completion percentage off the play action. He uses his speed to really get to the corner and has great vision and precision down the field to consistently get solid gains. Below is a prime example of him rolling out and putting the ball exactly where he wanted to.

He does however, need to work on two major sore spots. Pocket awareness and deep ball accuracy. These two things are crucial for Mariota to eventually be considered one of the elite in the game. Yes, his putrid offensive line is partially to blame on this issue, but great quarterbacks make plays when there’s nothing available to them.

Too many times in 2015 was Mariota hit from behind, giving up a fumble in crucial situations. Yeah he might need better protection, but you still need to at least feel the pass rush getting there and at the very least protect the ball. He fumbled a lot his rookie year, and in main part to terrible ball handling behind the line of scrimmage. Hopefully, this is a spot where we see major improvement come 2016.

There were also times where the second year pro would under throw open receivers down the field. That is something that needs to change because those plays can be absolutely game changing. (Go to the 40 second mark on that hyperlink.) It happened more times then the Titans’ coaching staff would like to admit.

You have one player who can be one of the best deep threats in all of football. Dorial Green-Beckham has as much potential as anyone at the receiver position. Despite being fourth on the team in catches, DGB was second behind Pro-Bowl tight end Delanie Walker in receiving yards with 549 yards on 32 catches. That’s a weapon Marcus Mariota absolutely must take advantage of.

Mike Mularkey is implanting his ‘exotic smashmouth’ offense this year, an offense that asks the quarterback to really be under center for the majority of the snaps. It’s a run heavy offense that involves a solid amount of play action, which tailors to Mariota. There’s no question about this signal callers footwork from under center, as he showed zero hitches his rookie year in any of his drop backs.

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With that offense, Mariota will have a lot going for him. He now has a bell cow running back in Murray, a solid trio of wide receivers in Green-Beckham/Wright/Matthews, to go along with an already great tight end in Walker. It’ll be interesting to see what this offense is going to look like behind it’s face of the franchise.