What to do with Mariota past 2019

Like I said before, Marcus has come through in the clutch on several occasions. He's obviously talented, but he doesn't really let himself go out and just play until there's just no other choice and the game is on the line. He also doesn't really make receivers better either. He only throws to open receivers as evidence by how his targeted receivers had more separation than any other QB's last season.

Mahomes, Luck, Brady, etc all consistently move their offenses. They're weapons that teams have to fear at all times. Marcus is just too hot and cold. He doesn't challenge defenses at every turn, and doesn't always play at the high level he's capable of and required to compete and win championships.

It's certainly not all on Marcus, and he's been through a ton of coaches, schemes, no help at receiver, and so on. But we're at a fork in the road. Do we pay him what a starting QB goes for these days, $20M+ per year? That's going to hamstring the rest of the team and make it that much harder to get playmakers around him.

Is he worth that heavy price? Compared to the rest of the league, no, he's not. When you look at his production compared to everyone else, he's not any better than nearly any other starter. Does he have positives? Is he a great guy, leader, physical freak, good arm, smart? Absolutely! But his backup Tannehill has pretty much the exact same production through his career and we just traded for him for pennies on the dollar.

 

To paragraph #1, how do you know that? To me, it looks like we're a run heavy team which is going to limit opportunities. But even with a stagnant running game, Mariota was one of the best on 3rd downs. Are you saying he's failing when giving the opportunity? Because he can't, to my knowledge, switch from run to pass until recently.

To paragraphg #2, Luck couldn't score a single point against the Jags. They got destroyed by the Chiefs. Just because he's beaten us, doesn't mean he doesn't have off games like any other QB. Marcus outplayed Brady when we played and outscored him. Was it scheme and opportunity or is he just the better QB? To me it looked like the coaches knew we couldn't be conservative and dialed up the pass. Mariota was a surgeon that day.

To paragraph #3, you have to pay your starter QB "starter" money. It's not going to 'hamstring' other positions if we're going to pay another guy that same money. I understand if you're basing everything about performance, but the truth is we need a franchise QB to invest in and they're hard to find.




If you only look at production you can make that argument. But 'production' isn't everything and that's why ABC has gotten his ass handed to him on this forum for months now. Check out some of @Gut's post that dive into the numbers.

Mariota can only do what he's asked.

 

We are a run heavy team, but even looking at stats that aren't affected by volume (yards per attempt/catch, TD per pass attempt, TD/INT ratio, etc), we're no better than middle of the pack for all of those. And doesn't everyone say that a good run game should help the pass game? So by that logic our pass efficiency should have been great. But it wasn't.

You're looking at anecdotal evidence here, not the sum of their efforts. Mariota was good in 1 game vs the Pats. Great. He was historically bad against the Ravens just weeks earlier. We can point out great or terrible games for anyone, even Brady has had some stinkers. But at some point you have to look at the total output throughout a career and ask if he's worth starter money.

Couldn't disagree with this more. That's a sunk cost fallacy. You're saying we've come to far with him, and it's hard to find good franchise QB's. Is it though?? There's half a dozen QB's that have been drafted in the past 3 years that have shown far more than Marcus has in his career. What makes you say that we can't find someone better in a future draft?

It isn't just about production, but that is a big part of it. I love Marcus as a guy, but this year is it. Everyone from JRob, Vrabel, and Marcus himself have said that he has to play better. I haven't even mentioned the list of injuries he's suffered, because I really don't blame him for that. But that time missed is still something that has to be taken into consideration.

If he's not other worldly when he's on the field, and he's not on the field even 85% of the time, then why are we waiting around on him to do something no one is even entirely sure he's capable of doing?

 

How did you break up the post like that? Will respond but have been wanting to do that forever and didn't know how

 

Just copy and paste the "[ QUOTE="Posters name, etc, etc ] and finish it with the [ /QUOTE ]. Obviously remove the spaces in there.

 

Marcus Mariota is the NFL’s Best Passer In Obvious Passing Situations

 

Hey Gut, what’s your take on the above article. I started reading it and then got interrupted. You are my human clif notes...

 

That article is more about other people than Mary for what its worth

 

Story of my life... mostly about other people.

 

I thought it was a very good article. Mariota has faults, there isn’t no denying it. However, he does a ton of things that are elite which makes me think that he can eventually get there. I understand people’s frustration with him, I wanted him to get cut like 3 different times last season. He can be great man, I don’t understand why he can’t put it all together.