You want to win the AFC South then you have to match up against Andrew Luck.
The Tennessee Titans now think they are all set to compete against Luck and his Indianapolis Colts in the future after drafting Marcus Mariota with the second overall pick in the NFL draft.
They re probably wrong too.
The only quarterback who was taken in the NFL draft who can compete with Luck is Jameis Winston who went No. 1 to Tampa Bay. Now if you think the Bucs rolled the dice on Winston because he is immature and is prone to making terrible decisions on and off the field you re absolutely correct. But at least he is ready made NFL material to come in and start in the first game of the 2015 season.
NFL executives like to say that a player like Mariota allows them to sleep easily at night compared to Winston and other NFL players who run afoul of the law and have made Roger Goodell s job a living hell in recent years. But as a football player Mariota is a much bigger gamble. If he doesn t convert to the NFL the way the Titans hope he does then it will set the franchise back for a decade.
He played in a spread offense at Oregon playing pitch and catch mainly with his primary receiver and rarely having to make a second read or scan the field to find an alternate option open down the field. When Ohio State forced him to do that in the college football championship game in Arlington Tx. he did not perform well and Oregon was outclassed.
Then there s the question of the Heisman Trophy winner s arm strength no small consideration especially when you re trying to compete against Luck the best young quarterback in the NFL today.
As former Giants Super Bowl winning QB Phil Simms told the Nashville Tennessean recently. I don t see top 10 arm talent with Marcus Mariota.
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