I'd take Mariota over Garropolo and Winston for sure, the other ones are tough but Mariota's in the conversation with them after Wentz who is clearly at the top I believe.

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Meh, I don't read too much into last night's performance. The Steelers have outright OWNED the Titans at Heinz Field for about as long as I can remember. This game was doomed for Tenn from the start, being at PITT and especially on a short week Thursday night. 

If the Titans do happen to make the playoffs, they better hope they don't have to face the Steelers again, or they'll get "buzz sawed" to an end of their season.

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He's tiny and he sucks.

That's all the analyzing that guy deserves.

Tom Brady - 6'4", 225
Aaron Rodgers - 6'2", 225
Peyton Manning - 6'5", 230
Marcus Mariota - 6'4", 222
Blake Bortles 6'5", 236

I don't understand the constant references to him being undersized.

If you think he weighs 222lbs, there's a bridge in Atlantis I want to sell you... it's top notch.

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Tom Brady - 6'4", 225
Aaron Rodgers - 6'2", 225
Peyton Manning - 6'5", 230
Marcus Mariota - 6'4", 222
Blake Bortles 6'5", 236

I don't understand the constant references to him being undersized.

If you think he weighs 222lbs, there's a bridge in Atlantis I want to sell you... it's top notch.

Not just that, but he doesn't look an inch shorter than Bortles. Probably one of those cases of 6'3.5" in shoes rounded up and called 6'4".

Plus it matters where your weight is. Having strong joints is better than having weak small joints, which mariota seems to have. None of mariota's injuries have come on particularly vicious hits.

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I think you're way off. 

Mariota was an elite prospect and was one of the best young QBs in the NFL last year. Unfortunately in the NFL development isn't linear. Players don't get better and better every year, sometimes due to circumstances they have a down year.  

Mularkey's poor coaching has neutered Mariota this year. The scheme doesn't suit him, receivers aren't being schemed open. The run game isn't what it once was. Mariota is also playing fairly poorly by his own accord. 

No Mariota "at his best" is a much better QB than Blake and is more advanced in most areas of QBing. More accurate, takes better care of the ball, better anticipation, better mechanics, better at reading the defense.  If you polled 32 GMs on if they'd rather Mariota or Bortles you'd get 32 GMs telling you Mariota. 

Down year, still a good young QB.

I think you're way off.

Whether any GM would take him ahead of Bortles doesn't mean anything, Bortles is not a franchise QB in my opinion, and neither is Mariota.

If you wanted to ask a more relevant question of them you'd ask which young QBs they'd want to have and maybe in what order.

I'd be surprised if Mariota were even in the top five asking a question like that.

You want him over Wentz? Goff? Carr? Garopolo? Prescott? Watson? Winston? I could see someone arguing he might be better than one or two of those guys. Then there's the ranks of guys that are already known to be franchise or elite level, is he above any of them?

Trying to argue he's better than Bortles is pointless, guys that aren't franchise quality are really just levels of bad, and that's the cast Mariota is in. Plus he's not yet played in every game of a season.

I'd love to see the titans double down on him, though, maybe give him another one of those Andrew Luck kind of contracts.

You see you were comparing him to Bortles so I was showing that there is a gulf in quality between the two. Mariota is a franchise QB. Bortles isn't. 

Yes I'd easily take Mariota over Winston and Jimmy G. Wentz is playing like an MVP candidate, Watson has been my favourite QB prospect ever. Goff and Dak are legit franchise guys too.  

The titans would be wise to get proper coaching and put the right scheme around Mariota to maximize his strengths. We have seen Goff+Wentz flourish doing this.

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I think you're way off.

Whether any GM would take him ahead of Bortles doesn't mean anything, Bortles is not a franchise QB in my opinion, and neither is Mariota.

If you wanted to ask a more relevant question of them you'd ask which young QBs they'd want to have and maybe in what order.

I'd be surprised if Mariota were even in the top five asking a question like that.

You want him over Wentz? Goff? Carr? Garopolo? Prescott? Watson? Winston? I could see someone arguing he might be better than one or two of those guys. Then there's the ranks of guys that are already known to be franchise or elite level, is he above any of them?

Trying to argue he's better than Bortles is pointless, guys that aren't franchise quality are really just levels of bad, and that's the cast Mariota is in. Plus he's not yet played in every game of a season.

I'd love to see the titans double down on him, though, maybe give him another one of those Andrew Luck kind of contracts.

You see you were comparing him to Bortles so I was showing that there is a gulf in quality between the two. Mariota is a franchise QB. Bortles isn't. 

Yes I'd easily take Mariota over Winston and Jimmy G. Wentz is playing like an MVP candidate, Watson has been my favourite QB prospect ever. Goff and Dak are legit franchise guys too.  

The titans would be wise to get proper coaching and put the right scheme around Mariota to maximize his strengths. We have seen Goff+Wentz flourish doing this.

Fine, you're on record that you think he's a franchise QB, I'm on record saying I don't think he is, and that his career is more like game manager, like Bortles this year, than franchise passer.

If we're all still around in a few years we can see if you were right or not.

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If you think he weighs 222lbs, there's a bridge in Atlantis I want to sell you... it's top notch.

Not just that, but he doesn't look an inch shorter than Bortles. Probably one of those cases of 6'3.5" in shoes rounded up and called 6'4".

Plus it matters where your weight is. Having strong joints is better than having weak small joints, which mariota seems to have. None of mariota's injuries have come on particularly vicious hits.

This. He might be pushing 215 on a good day. Most of that is upper body with his chicken legs. At nearly 6’4” and 215...skinny! I’m 6’1” 225 and would look pretty skinny minus 5-10 lbs. Yeah, he needs leg day for sure.

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Yes I'd easily take Mariota over Winston and Jimmy G. Wentz is playing like an MVP candidate, Watson has been my favourite QB prospect ever. Goff and Dak are legit franchise guys too.  

The titans would be wise to get proper coaching and put the right scheme around Mariota to maximize his strengths. We have seen Goff+Wentz flourish doing this.

Regarding the bolded bit - I ranked Mariota and Garoppolo similarly when they came out respectively and still do. 
I think Jimmy G will do pretty well when he gets his shot. (I liked Wentz, was a bit scared of Dak, and was really scared of Watson due to all the one read stuff in school)

Regarding the coaching/scheme for Mariota, I agree. He's being held back a bit. Though they are clearly smart about using the TE, I think they could tweak their playbook with the receivers to utilize Mariota better. 

I think the high number of picks vs steelers was an exception to the rule for him.  Only two of them were especially egregious errors on his part really. 
I hope he keeps up the trend, but I think he's smart enough to learn from it.

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Mariota is the only elite QB in this division.  

I had a feeling this was premature when you posted it. That feeling was confirmed rather adamantly. 
Maybe he gets there eventually, but I believe you've jumped the gun with that label for now.

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Yes I'd easily take Mariota over Winston and Jimmy G. Wentz is playing like an MVP candidate, Watson has been my favourite QB prospect ever. Goff and Dak are legit franchise guys too.  

The titans would be wise to get proper coaching and put the right scheme around Mariota to maximize his strengths. We have seen Goff+Wentz flourish doing this.

Regarding the bolded bit - I ranked Mariota and Garoppolo similarly when they came out respectively and still do. 
I think Jimmy G will do pretty well when he gets his shot. (I liked Wentz, was a bit scared of Dak, and was really scared of Watson due to all the one read stuff in school)

Regarding the coaching/scheme for Mariota, I agree. He's being held back a bit. Though they are clearly smart about using the TE, I think they could tweak their playbook with the receivers to utilize Mariota better. 

I think the high number of picks vs steelers was an exception to the rule for him.  Only two of them were especially egregious errors on his part really. 
I hope he keeps up the trend, but I think he's smart enough to learn from it.

Is it scheme? He's never shown much throwing deep, and when you're limited as a QB there is less you can do with scheme.

I think the interesting comparison to Mariota is Prescott. They're in almost the same situation. Great offensive line, great running game, good enough defense, but Prescott doesn't need excuses all over the place because he went to the playoffs from year one in a strong division and gave the Packers all they could handle.

Mariota, meanwhile, is in year three in a weak division and hasn't made it through a season, much less take his team to the playoffs.

Mariota is fine if you're good with a game manager, the Jaguars could probably continue to get similar results taking Bortles into coming seasons. However I don't think Jaguars fans will be happy with it unless the team carries him to a Superbowl, and I'm not sure how much longer titans fans will be happy with mediocrity when they have elite facets on their team, either.

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Well, that should put to bed the discussion about how elite Mariota is. Yeesh.

I don't see how anyone can argue that the Jags are better than the Titans at this point. We're a wideout and a QB away from being one of the best teams in the NFL--and it just so happens there are some pretty great options in FA and the draft this year.

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Where'd those heights and weights come from? Mariota decided to drop weight in the offseason to be able to avoid the rush more. (Against the wishes of his coaches iirc)

Also... people carry their weights on their frames differently, I don't know why people can't understand this.



Not everyone who is 225 are the same. Between actual body fat % and lean muscle weight, bone density, height... a lot factors in.
Some people have a slight frame and so they tend to look slimmer than their weight would suggest. (There's also the fact that measurements from college, combine, and team sites are not always the same so who knows the true numbers anyway) Those QBs that are slight framed (Mariota and Teddy from recent drafts) should probably add density to avoid injury. But everyone likes that fast quick QB that can avoid the rush... smh... I would prefer my QB be able to take a hit in the pocket while throwing the ball and not have to worry about him cracking to pieces.

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Regarding the bolded bit - I ranked Mariota and Garoppolo similarly when they came out respectively and still do. 
I think Jimmy G will do pretty well when he gets his shot. (I liked Wentz, was a bit scared of Dak, and was really scared of Watson due to all the one read stuff in school)

Regarding the coaching/scheme for Mariota, I agree. He's being held back a bit. Though they are clearly smart about using the TE, I think they could tweak their playbook with the receivers to utilize Mariota better. 

I think the high number of picks vs steelers was an exception to the rule for him.  Only two of them were especially egregious errors on his part really. 
I hope he keeps up the trend, but I think he's smart enough to learn from it.

Is it scheme? He's never shown much throwing deep, and when you're limited as a QB there is less you can do with scheme.

I think the interesting comparison to Mariota is Prescott. They're in almost the same situation. Great offensive line, great running game, good enough defense, but Prescott doesn't need excuses all over the place because he went to the playoffs from year one in a strong division and gave the Packers all they could handle.

Mariota, meanwhile, is in year three in a weak division and hasn't made it through a season, much less take his team to the playoffs.

Mariota is fine if you're good with a game manager, the Jaguars could probably continue to get similar results taking Bortles into coming seasons. However I don't think Jaguars fans will be happy with it unless the team carries him to a Superbowl, and I'm not sure how much longer titans fans will be happy with mediocrity when they have elite facets on their team, either.

Mariota was well above average throwing deep last year.

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You see you were comparing him to Bortles so I was showing that there is a gulf in quality between the two. Mariota is a franchise QB. Bortles isn't. 

Yes I'd easily take Mariota over Winston and Jimmy G. Wentz is playing like an MVP candidate, Watson has been my favourite QB prospect ever. Goff and Dak are legit franchise guys too.  

The titans would be wise to get proper coaching and put the right scheme around Mariota to maximize his strengths. We have seen Goff+Wentz flourish doing this.

Fine, you're on record that you think he's a franchise QB, I'm on record saying I don't think he is, and that his career is more like game manager, like Bortles this year, than franchise passer.

If we're all still around in a few years we can see if you were right or not.

Yeah I'm good with that. I mean I'd much prefer if Mariota stank because it makes our life easier

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Yes I'd easily take Mariota over Winston and Jimmy G. Wentz is playing like an MVP candidate, Watson has been my favourite QB prospect ever. Goff and Dak are legit franchise guys too.  

The titans would be wise to get proper coaching and put the right scheme around Mariota to maximize his strengths. We have seen Goff+Wentz flourish doing this.

Regarding the bolded bit - I ranked Mariota and Garoppolo similarly when they came out respectively and still do. 
I think Jimmy G will do pretty well when he gets his shot. (I liked Wentz, was a bit scared of Dak, and was really scared of Watson due to all the one read stuff in school)

Regarding the coaching/scheme for Mariota, I agree. He's being held back a bit. Though they are clearly smart about using the TE, I think they could tweak their playbook with the receivers to utilize Mariota better. 

I think the high number of picks vs steelers was an exception to the rule for him.  Only two of them were especially egregious errors on his part really. 
I hope he keeps up the trend, but I think he's smart enough to learn from it.

Vaguely remember you being big on Jimmy. He's talented and has gone to the best offensive mind in the league so the future should be bright. I think what the 49ers do this offseason will be the most interesting out of all the QB needy teams..will they give Jimmy big money? Draft a QB? Sign Kirk? 

With the way the NFL is now most of it is just spread in the passing game but it seems the titans are fairly reluctant to go there. Not sure if Mularkey is the right guy anymore. 

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Regarding the bolded bit - I ranked Mariota and Garoppolo similarly when they came out respectively and still do. 
I think Jimmy G will do pretty well when he gets his shot. (I liked Wentz, was a bit scared of Dak, and was really scared of Watson due to all the one read stuff in school)

Regarding the coaching/scheme for Mariota, I agree. He's being held back a bit. Though they are clearly smart about using the TE, I think they could tweak their playbook with the receivers to utilize Mariota better. 

I think the high number of picks vs steelers was an exception to the rule for him.  Only two of them were especially egregious errors on his part really. 
I hope he keeps up the trend, but I think he's smart enough to learn from it.

Is it scheme? He's never shown much throwing deep, and when you're limited as a QB there is less you can do with scheme.

I think they could get some things out of the playbook that don't play to his strengths and then beef up/add wrinkles to the things that do. Definitely.  

He struggles with shallow stuff to the sidelines. (saw that last night - but the stats show it clearly as well) 
He's good in the middle of the field, shallow, intermediate and deep. They need to use that even more. He's terrible throwing deep to his right and great throwing deep to his left.  They should probably develop a way to take more shots to that side. 

This is just the most obvious stuff without digging deep.

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Is it scheme? He's never shown much throwing deep, and when you're limited as a QB there is less you can do with scheme.

I think they could get some things out of the playbook that don't play to his strengths and then beef up/add wrinkles to the things that do. Definitely.  

He struggles with shallow stuff to the sidelines. (saw that last night - but the stats show it clearly as well) 
He's good in the middle of the field, shallow, intermediate and deep. They need to use that even more. He's terrible throwing deep to his right and great throwing deep to his left.  They should probably develop a way to take more shots to that side. 

This is just the most obvious stuff without digging deep.

It is obvious stuff, which probably has a lot to do with the fact that he's throwing more ints than TDs this season with a good offensive line in front of him giving him enough time to make reads if he can. Teams know where he can throw decently and they cheat there.

Also that second int last night was as bad as any I've seen Bortles throw. Stared his guy down, should have seen the defender breaking on it and threw it anyway. He made the tackle because he knew it was a pick the moment it left his hand.

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This is just the most obvious stuff without digging deep.

Also that second int last night was as bad as any I've seen Bortles throw. Stared his guy down, should have seen the defender breaking on it and threw it anyway. He made the tackle because he knew it was a pick the moment it left his hand.

I agree.  It was also thrown to one of those ugly red low percentage spots on his completion grid that I'm talking about. He has a rating of 50.4 or something like that throwing to that area. That kind of thing can be schemed/planned away from.

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Also that second int last night was as bad as any I've seen Bortles throw. Stared his guy down, should have seen the defender breaking on it and threw it anyway. He made the tackle because he knew it was a pick the moment it left his hand.

I agree.  It was also thrown to one of those ugly red low percentage spots on his completion grid that I'm talking about. He has a rating of 50.4 or something like that throwing to that area. That kind of thing can be schemed/planned away from.

Sure it can, of course it wasn't heavy coverage there and it was the titans 'great' rookie. The coverage likely was slanted to the left.

Still no matter what this really comes back to do you think you've seen something in three years to tell you Mariota is a Luck/roethlisberger/Brady/Brees/Carr/Wilson/etc?

I don't think I have. I've seen him look like a game manager with a pretty good team around him that can be a 'don't get in the way of wins' guy for them, but nothing more.

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I agree.  It was also thrown to one of those ugly red low percentage spots on his completion grid that I'm talking about. He has a rating of 50.4 or something like that throwing to that area. That kind of thing can be schemed/planned away from.

...do you think you've seen something in three years to tell you Mariota is a Luck/roethlisberger/Brady/Brees/Carr/Wilson/etc?

I have little idea where he'll ultimately fall on the spectrum of game manager/franchise/elite etc. 

I don't like to pigeonhole young players development at this stage.  I guess I'd guess game manager leaning closer towards the franchise guy area of the spectrum. Remains to be seen.

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Mariota has taken a decided step backwards this year as he tries to do more. He is not a franchise QB. But he is good enough to keep the tacks from looking for a transcendent talent. Which I fully hope he does. 10 year deal for Mariota!

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Yes, it's improvement, but it's Blaine Gabbert 2012 level improvement. - Pirkster

http://youtu.be/ouGM3NWpjxk The Home Hypnotist!

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Peyton must store oxygen in that forehead of his. No way I'd still be alive after all that choking.