T-Rac
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- Mar 20, 2019
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The NFL has three types of teams: (1) teams with franchise quarterbacks; (2) teams looking for franchise quarterbacks; and (3) teams with quarterbacks who may still become franchise quarterbacks. The Titans seem to admit that they are in category No. 3.
“Marcus, I want him to be successful,” Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk said Tuesday, via Jim Wyatt of the team’s official website. “I want him to be our franchise quarterback.”
The phrasing means that he currently isn’t a “franchise quarterback,” but that he still could become one. The Titans will pay Mariota $20.8 million this year for the privilege of finding out whether he can earn that label, and the long-term deal that goes along with it. In that respect, Mariota is no different from the player taken one spot before him in the 2015 draft: Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston.
Bucs G.M. Jason Licht made it clear this week in a visit to PFT Live that the team will take a wait-and-see approach as to signing Winston to a long-term deal, and the Titans apparently will be doing the same with Mariota.
“It was a tough year from an injury standpoint last year, and I know that Marcus is raring to go and prove that he can be that guy,” Strunk said.
If he can’t, the Titans will presumably be sliding back into category No. 2 in 2020.