Injury Issues Follow Mariota to Raiders

Former Titans quarterback will start the 2020 season on injured reserve.

Marcus Mariota hoped a change will do him good.

Well, his first season with the Las Vegas Raiders is different, but not in a good way.

The former Tennessee Titans quarterback is on injured reserve for the first time. The Raiders made the move Monday with Mariota, who battled a strained pectoral muscle throughout preseason camp.

Under adjusted personnel rules for the 2020 season, the 2014 Heisman Trophy winner at Oregon will be eligible to return to the active roster after three weeks.

Mariota battled injury issues during his five seasons with the Tennessee Titans but always managed to get back on the field as quickly as possible. In his four full seasons as a starter he never played all 16 games, but he never missed more than two in a row. Three times in those four years, he was unavailable for the regular-season finale.

Knee sprains caused him to miss two games in the first half of his rookie year (2015) as well as the final two that season. A broken fibula sustained in Week 16 knocked him out for the 2016 finale and limited his offseason preparation for the following campaign. A hamstring strain sidelined him for one game in 2017, and a nerve issue knocked him out for one contest early in 2018 as well as the Week 17 showdown with Indianapolis with a playoff berth on the line (Tennessee lost with Blaine Gabbert at quarterback).

Those were only the issues that were documented on the NFL’s official injury report. Other ailments, which he reportedly played through, involved his back, his ribs, a foot and a knee.

Mariota signed a free agent deal with the Raiders in March that made him the NFL’s highest-paid backup quarterback. It was expected that he ultimately would compete with Derek Carr to be the starter, and his contract includes incentives that will significantly increase his compensation if that happens.

“As far as having Marcus here, I think he’s been everything as advertised as a person,” Raiders general manager Mike Mayock said recently. “You know, he was coming off some physical stuff. [coach] Jon Gruden and I talked to Marcus about kind of rebuilding from the ground up in his footwork and just coming off the injuries.”

Now, he is starting off with another one.