With their wild-card hopes of making the NFL playoffs hanging by a thread, the Tennessee Titans (8-7) will play what could be their final game of the season today in Houston (10-5).
If it is anything like their last nine games, it will be played without an appearance by Marcus Mariota at quarterback.
Once the face of the franchise, now you have to carefully scan the Titans’ sideline just to glimpse Mariota these days.
When you do see No. 8, chances are it will be while he is talking to Ryan Tannehill, exhorting and helping to coach up the man who has replaced him since the second half of Week 6.
Mariota has not made a handoff or so much as lofted a pass since that 16-0 loss at Denver on Oct. 13, which is remarkable. He has also not thrown a tantrum or tossed anybody under the bus. That, however, is not remarkable. At least from what we’ve come to expect from Mariota over the years.
There is a sense of permanent entitlement that can take hold with being a Heisman Trophy winner, first-round draft choice and multi-millionaire quarterback, even when the starting job has been yanked away. But you don’t hear any of that from Mariota. Nor, in his final days before free agency, has there been a let’s-just-get-this-damn-season-over-so-I-can-move-on vibe.
We’ve seen plenty of open wounds displayed in public where deposed quarterbacks are concerned this year. Except in Tennessee, where Mariota has not gone Joe Flacco on his coaches or pulled an Andy Dalton or Baker Mayfield on the organization.
“It is on me,” Mariota has resolutely repeated regarding his benching, actually seeming to mean it. That can’t have been easy after some of what the Titans have put him through for four plus years of a constantly changing cast of head coaches, offensive coordinators, quarterback coaches, offensive schemes and sieve-like offensive lines.
“(I have) a ton of respect for Marcus and not only what he’s done in his football career, but the person that he is each and every day,” Tannehill told Sports Illustrated. “Tough situation for him, but he’s been nothing but professional throughout the whole process. He’s been supportive. I’ve been able to just talk through things on game day, during the week. He helps me with watching the tape.
“I think he does everything he can possibly do to help me and this team along, which says a lot about his character as a person being in that tough situation,” Tannehill said.
Can it really be going on five years since he debuted as a rookie, authoring four touchdown passes without an interception? Have things really regressed so far in the 13 months since he completed 22 of 23 passes for 303 yards to beat the Texans?
The hope today is that Mariota’s patience and persistence will somehow be rewarded with a last opportunity to get in and win one more game, a departing exclamation-point performance that lifts the Titans into the playoffs.
If not, Mariota, whose contract ends this season, will depart having thrown for 75 touchdowns, owning a bunch of franchise records and being known for how he carried himself throughout.
“He’s handled this whole situation better than, I would say, 95% of anybody probably in that situation could have handled it,” Titans’ safety Kevin Byard told the Nashville Tennessean newspaper. “He’s one of the better human beings I’ve ever been around.”
Mariota’s “franchise” status and starting quarterback job have been taken away.
But his character, in or out of the spotlight, continues to shine through.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
