Coming off of a severe leg injury, what should fantasy football owners expect from Marcus Mariota in 2017?
3,426 passing yards, 276 completions, 26 touchdowns and nine interceptions—these were the 2016 stats of Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota. For many fantasy football owners, the second-year player brought a steady stream of points on a weekly basis. Entering his sophomore season, Mariota proved that he’s a quarterback on the rise in the NFL.
Unfortunately, Mariota suffered a broken fibula late in the season and now faces the lengthy process of rehabbing with hopes of returning next season without missing a beat. Should fantasy owners be worried about Mariota entering a very important year in his career?
Technically, no. It looks like the Tennessee Titans are taking the right steps when it comes to bringing back Mariota without forcing him to return when not fully healthy. Per Tim Daniels of Bleacher Report, here’s what head coach Mike Mularkey had to say about how the Titans plan to handle Mariota’s eventual return to football activities:
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"“I can’t give you specific dates. I think we’re gonna be really smart about how we handle him and probably be over-cautious. The later probably the better. We need him for September,” Mularkey said. “You guys know Marcus like I do. He’s probably gonna over train to come back as quickly as he can, and we’re probably gonna have to put the reins on him to hold back a little bit.”"
To fantasy owners, this bodes well for Mariota’s 2017 prospects. This is the perfect approach to ensure he’s 100 percent healed up. Rushing Mariota won’t do anything positive and considering his mobility, it’s best to wait until the end of preseason before he’s ready to enter a football game.
Mariota was wise to get his surgery done as soon as he could towards the end of last year to be ready for next season. Of course, it’s still a risk to consider Mariota a QB1 starter at this point in time, but since the Titans are handling everything so well, he should be a QB2 with major upside. Depending on how he does the first few weeks of the regular season, he could move up in fantasy rankings.
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If Mariota continues where he left off from last season, he’s going to enjoy another superb season. If he’s not able to get back into his usual rhythm, it’s best to monitor his progress weekly during the regular season if you do take a risk in drafting him. Regardless, Mariota is a warrior and will do everything in his power this offseason to come back better than ever. Chances are, he’s going to come back with even more to prove.