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Mariota Moves On, Joins AFC West Team

The former Titans' starting quarterback figures to be a backup with the Las Vegas Raiders

David Boclair

If anybody knows that a step back is not necessarily a step in the wrong direction, it’s Marcus Mariota.

The second overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft was the Tennessee Titans’ starting quarterback for more than four years. Then he lost the job to Ryan Tannehill, who spent the first six games of 2019 as Mariota’s backup. Before that Tannehill was a starter for seven seasons in Miami.

Now, Mariota is set to be a backup for the first time.

According to multiple reports Monday night, Mariota has agreed to contract terms with the Las Vegas Raiders, who have an established starter in Derek Carr. A second-round pick in 2014, Carr has started all 94 games he has played (out of a possible 96) in his NFL career.

Mariota was 29-32 in 61 career starts over five seasons with the Titans. He ranks fifth in franchise history with 13,207 passing yards, fifth with 76 passing touchdowns and fifth with 1,110 completions. His 62.9 completion percentage is a franchise record for quarterbacks who have attempted at least 300 passes as his 89.6 passer rating.

The dual-threat, who has rushed for 1,399 yards in his career (fifth among all NFL quarterbacks over that span), has been named AFC Offensive Player of the Week four times and AFC Offensive Player of the Month once (November 2016).

He had issues staying healthy, though, and never played all 16 games in a regular season. Most notably, in his first four seasons he was inactive twice and on injured reserve once for the final game of the regular season. That included 2018, when he was unavailable for a must-win game against the Indianapolis Colts for the final AFC playoff spot (Blaine Gabbert played in his place and Tennessee lost).

He also struggled with consistency. After he threw a career-high 26 touchdown passes with just nine interceptions in 2016 he threw 13 touchdown passes with 15 interceptions in 2017.

The Raiders’ interest in Mariota was first reported more than a week ago. General manager Mike Mayock is a former NFL Network Draft analyst who rated the 2014 Heisman Trophy winner as the top quarterback prospect in the 2015 NFL Draft.

The Titans re-signed Tannehill to a four-year, $118 million extension on Sunday. The only other quarterback currently on the roster is Logan Woodside, a seventh-round pick by Cincinnati in 2018 who never has played in the regular season.

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David Boclair
DAVID BOCLAIR

David Boclair has covered the Tennessee Titans for multiple news outlets since 1998. He is award-winning journalist who has covered a wide range of topics in Middle Tennessee as well as Dallas-Fort Worth, where he worked for three different newspapers from 1987-96. As a student journalist at Southern Methodist University he covered the NCAA's decision to impose the so-called death penalty on the school's football program.

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