With his broken leg healing, protectively encased, and with strict instruction to keep weight off of it, Marcus Mariota faced a dilemma.
How to pursue his passion for golf while staying faithful to doctors’ orders?
It turned out that with a little jury-rigging from a scooter, “I was able to take some hacks,” Mariota said. “Kinda messed up my swing, I think.”
So we probably shouldn’t be too surprised that the Tennessee Titans’ quarterback also found a way to fling a few passes to keep his arm shape without jeopardizing the surgically repaired right fibula.
The combination has him not only in position to participate but even slightly ahead of schedule for when the Titans open organized team workouts next week in Nashville.
Five months — almost to the day since he was carried off the field at Jacksonville in the final week of the 2016 regular season — Mariota is expected to pass and do some running next Tuesday.
“(He) does more than I have expected him to do,” Titans’ coach Mike Mularkey said in an interview on the Titans’ website. “I’m trying to pull him back with the reins but he’s not doing anything that is going to put him in any jeopardy of a setback. We’re really pleased with where he’s at right now and we’re getting a lot of work done with him.”
To date Mariota has been in Nashville for voluntary workouts and Mularkey said, “So, we’re being very smart with him but I think he is ahead of schedule right now.”
The goal, indeed, the necessity if the Titans are to continue their progress, is to have Mariota ready for the Sept. 10 season opener with Oakland.
Since taking Mariota with the second overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, the Titans have gone from 2-14 to 9-7 in 2016, when they were tied for the AFC South lead before he went out with the broken leg.
General manager Jon Robinson said on the team’s website, “You know, we said it back in January when we kind of closed the book on the ’16 season, that heading into 2017, the most important thing for Marcus is to get healthy so that he is ready to go Week One.”
Mariota has said early on during a visit home, “That’s not in question. I’ll be good to go. They are just going to take it slower during the OTAs to see where I’m at with some of the individual stuff.”
The Titans, who used three of their picks in last month’s draft — including fifth overall pick Corey Davis — on receivers and a tight end, want to use OTAs to get Mariota and his new partners up to speed.
Mularkey said, “There will be some things in the OTAs that we feel like he’ll be able to do. We may adjust the practice schedules to get him some more (repetitions) in some capacity. But, I’m looking more toward the end of OTAs (when) we’ll see how he is doing. Again, we’ve got some time there. Got another month, a month and a half, and then, for sure, I think he will be ready for training camp.”
They have that expectation because, Robinson said, “He’s one of the hardest workers on our football team. He’s here early, he’s staying late. He’s working with those guys in the classroom. He’s doing everything he needs to do in the rehab process … And I know he is a fiery, competitive guy, he’s out in the community. Everybody loves him here. And we’re looking forward to him getting back out there and, when he’s ready, leading our football team.”
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820
