Marcus Mariota ?????????????????

[scottkoz20]

He isn't playing great but the Titans look to be playoff bound in the now weak AFC

The Bills are still alive - this is all you need to know about the AFC in 2017

#gotexans

[pwaldo]

The Bills are still alive - this is all you need to know about the AFC in 2017

#gotexans

A week or two ago the Browns were still mathematically "alive" for the AFC playoffs

[lil5up3rman]

As a life long Oilers/Titans fans I will say what I think is going on with Mariota. For starters everyone says our o-line is elite and they are still good but they are playing nowhere near the level they were playing last year, it has been mentioned by several commentators as well. Then our receivers tend to get very little separation. Also our offensive play calling is pedestrian at best, I can tell you the Titans regular series of calls run,run,run, throw to predictable if you ask me and when we do throw it's a screen or a curl routes usually 10 yards of less, corners and safety's I think have caught on to this and of course they are going to start getting picks because of it. Look at what happened when we got blown out by the Steelers the opening of the second half the Titans came out and went to the air and Mariota executed a beautiful drive down the field and we came away with a TD, then we went right back to run,run,run, short pass how many times can a team possibly do this, I think it has also affected our running game as well as our backs numbers are also way down this year. Mariota has made some bad decisions as well but i am personally not worried about him, I think a lot of it comes down to our lackluster play calling. Our receivers and even our sure handed tight end also have several drops in the end zone this year as well which have taken away what should have been td's in the redzone. Overall our offense is just not clicking and I think it has a lot to do with his regression which I honestly believe is due in large part to our shotty offensive play calling.

[Jameis1of1]

Cant remember the name of the QB in Tampa but he is crap

I wouldn't say Ryan Fitzpatrick is "crap" ... he filled in admirably for Jameis while he was resting his injured throwing shoulder, but now Jameis is back starting ... and if he's healthy, he'll likely put up his normal 300+- yards, but honestly, even old man Fitzpatrick has looked far superior to Marcus Mariota this year ... Mariota has 9 TD passes and 12 picks ... those are worse than TeBow numbers and many Titans fans seem to want the team to draft a new QB this year ... but pwaldo is right ... the Titans don't need a good QB to win their division as they are clearly the most well-rounded team in the AFC South ... Mariota can continue to throw more picks than INTs and they will still walk away with that division imho ... by the way, right after they got destroyed by Deshaun Watson and the Texans I said Titans fans needn't worry as the team's remaining schedule was so easy they would win 11-12 games ... it looks like I was spot on with that prediction.

[bakemeister52]

This has been a crazy season and Mariota and Dak have made some poor calls but I agree with Daniel run, run, run and pass. Mix it up more. You got good receivers but you got to hang on to the ball people.

[Jameis1of1]

It looks like many Mariota fans will get their wish and see what happens with Mariota with a new head coach? Are you excited?

To me, the whole thing is very strange as the recent reports were that the Titans brass offered Mularkey an extension ... and now it comes out that he just refused to coach the team and is walking.

All I can think is that the Titans GM is caving in to fans who think the team should "air it out" more. I picture the conversation like this:

Titans GM: Mike, we offered you an extension as you won 19 games the last two years and led us to the playoffs for the first time in 10 years this season.

Mike Mularkey: I did do great, didn't I?

Titans GM: Yes, but, our fans and I think you need to air it out a bit more and we'd like you to bring in a new coordinator to accomplish that, okay?

Mularkey: What? You've got to be kidding me! Mariota is the second WORST QB in the entire NFL in passer rating when he throws anything other than a play-action pass. However he's #1 in the entire NFL out of the play-action and you want to have a QB like that "air it out" more? Are you insane? I, not you, took a team with a QB like that to 10 wins and the second round of the playoffs this year. I, not you, know what I'm doing.

Titans GM: I understand all that but our fans want to see more throwing and more points being scored and our fans are who we are trying to please Mike.

Mularkey: Let me be real clear about this. If you don't let me coach this football team the way I feel it needs to be coached to actually win games, rather than just please the fans, I don't want the extension and I don't even want to coach next year, I'll resign.

Titans GM: I'm sorry you feel that way Mike and I wish you all the best.

Mularkey: Have fun missing the playoffs for the next decade like you did before I got you there this year. Bye.

So ... this whole situation seems strange ... but hey, if they can bring in an offensive genius like Josh McDaniels, maybe it will all work out for the Titans ... what do YOU think?

As it stands though, Mariota is now on his 3rd head coach after just 3 years, which isn't usually a good thing.

First he had QB guru Ken Whisenhut ... and he was fired after just 7 games as Mariota went 1-6 ... then he had Mike Mularkey and his "exotic smashmouth" offense ... and he just got fired after leading the Titans to their first playoff appearance in over a decade but in a season in which Mariota regressed terribly and was the second-worst QB in the entire NFL (better than only Browns rookie DeShone Kizer) on all passes thrown other than those thrown out of "play-action".

Personally, I like Mariota but I think the Titans are being stupid in firing Mularkey. He knew what he was doing. He had a limited QB that was GREAT out of play-action and HORRIBLE on everything else, so he used a smash-mouth offense to win 19 games over the past 2 seasons and advance to the 2nd round of the playoffs this year ... the guy should have got a huge raise!

However, I think the Titans brass knows they are "on the fence" about Mariota's future and they want to see him air it out a ton next year, before they decide whether to offer him a second, huge, contract. Another year with Mularkey would have hidden Mariota in that smash-mouth offense and not allowed them to really see if Marcus is capable of being a "real QB" and they need to see that in order to know if they are going to offer him a huge 2nd contract, or move on and sign or draft a new QB in 2019 or 2020 ... so in that way, perhaps the Titans brass made a smart move after all?

Personally, I expect the Titans to bring in a passing-oriented coach and for Mariota's "stats" to greatly improve next year, but for the team to suffer. They were built the right way and were coached the right way by Mularkey and may have made a huge mistake ... only time will tell.

[lil5up3rman]

Actually the reason he left is because they wanted to fire the OC as I said before a large part of why Mariota regressed was his play calling it was poor at best and very predictable which is part of the reason for all the turnovers. When they told him he couldn't keep his staff in place is when the 2 sides decided to part ways. I think Mariota is a lot better than his stats showed today, I am not saying he is the best by any means but they made him look mediocre behind the poor coaching of our OC. I wanted Mularkey back but I was one of the ones that has been calling for a New OC he is terrible.

[Jameis1of1]

Actually the reason he left is because they wanted to fire the OC as I said before a large part of why Mariota regressed was his play calling it was poor at best and very predictable which is part of the reason for all the turnovers. When they told him he couldn't keep his staff in place is when the 2 sides decided to part ways. I think Mariota is a lot better than his stats showed today, I am not saying he is the best by any means but they made him look mediocre behind the poor coaching of our OC. I wanted Mularkey back but I was one of the ones that has been calling for a New OC he is terrible.

Right, the Titans brass wanted a new O.C., one who is going to implement a pass-first offense and Mularkey basically said "if you're going to implement a pass-first offense, I am out of here as this is a sinking ship" and left.

People always get mad at me when I say I love Mariota but don't believe in his future to the extent I do some other young QBs ... but it seems that Mariota's own coach, Mike Mularkey doesn't really believe in Mariota's future either ... no coach in their right mind walks away from a 24 year old face of the franchise QB over a mere offensive coordinator dispute if he really believes in that QB I don't think.

Again, I'm not ripping on Mariota, he is what he is and I believe he can have great success in the future if he's in the right system and plays within his limitations, but to me, Mularkey just walking away from a guaranteed extension is a major slap in the face to Mariota and says a lot ...

[lil5up3rman]

Naw, Mularky has always said he stands by his staff and if they leave he leaves, I don't think it has anything to do with Mariota, I think he just stuck by what he said to be honest. Also, I can promise you TN will not become a pass first team we never have been and never will be, we are always a run first team. What I think they want is to see better play calling on passing downs, TN used almost the same routes the entire season on 3rd down throws it was very predictable also it was called exotic smashmouth football yet there was nothing exotic about you knew what was coming before the play was even called this made it easy for defenses to stop us, the Players were at odds with the OC and his playcalling as well for much of the season, they spoke out about it a lot. Also finally seeing Davis come on strong after missing a lot of the season due to injuries also gives me hope, I am wondering however if we keep Mathews or Decker, moving Mathews I think would be a huge mistake as I think he is a strong WR2 option, Decker I could care less either way he played much better in the playoffs than he did in the regular season and if he played that way during the regular season I wouldn't mind keeping him. I like Taylor as well but he did have several drops in the playoffs but I don't feel that would have been the case had they got him more involved in the regular season and he had more experience. Then there is the talk that Murray is likely done in TN, another mistake in my opinion Henry is good but we have always been better with a 2 headed system i.e. Chris Johnson/Lendale White and they had Young who could run as well which made us a much more dangerous team. If we keep Murray/Henry and Mariota can get going with the receivers we could become a much more dangerous team so I don't like the though of Murray leaving. Fluellen and Mohamed I do not think are the answer, do we try to draft another RB? I think we need either another corner or a safety as well as pass rusher in the draft. We were 4th against the run this year but I 25th against the pass, that needs to be cleaned up as we could have easily been top 10 total D if wasn't for our passing D instead we were 13th overall. Total offense this year we were 23rd which includes 23rd in passing and instead of a top 10 rushing offense we were 15th. Last year we were 11th in total offense which included 25th overall in passing 3rd overall in rushing big drop off in the run game.

[Jameis1of1]

With the news that Josh McDaniels is taking the Colts job, who do you think the Titans' top targets are for head coach?