In an episode of his popular “Gruden’s QB Camp” TV series prior to the 2015 NFL Draft, ESPN analyst Jon Gruden alternately picked on, minutely quizzed, prodded and teased Marcus Mariota.
Exasperated that he couldn’t get a reaction, Gruden finally asked: “How do you stay so calm all the time, man? Does anything bother you?”
Mariota replied, “Losing does.”
It was a revealing encounter, one that showed a depth of their connection that wasn’t matched in Gruden’s sessions with other quarterbacks and, as it turns out, provides an indication of what brings them together today as the Las Vegas Raiders welcome their quarterbacks to camp in Henderson, Nev.
After five up-and-down seasons with the Tennessee Titans, who made him the second overall pick of that NFL Draft, Mariota is looking to re-boot his career and it is no coincidence that Gruden is the one who is supplying the opportunity today.
Gruden and his now-general manager Mike Mayock, then an NFL Network Analyst, rated Mariota the top quarterback in the 2015 draft. And when Mariota became a free agent in March, they quickly snapped him up on a two-year, nearly $18 million deal that makes the Saint Louis School graduate one of the highest paid backup quarterbacks in the NFL this season.
Because the Raiders already had Derek Carr, who had his own inconsistency issues in a 7-9 season in which the Raiders missed the playoffs, the quarterback situation is being framed as the 29-year old Carr vs. the 26-year old Mariota. And, in time, it could become just that.
But as Mariota and the Raiders know, for them to be successful, Job One is to get Mariota back to being the player Gruden and Mayock marveled at in 2015 and the league took notice of in a 2016 breakout season.
The fact that they all merged in Las Vegas means they still believe it can happen. “He knows that both of us believed in him coming out (of college) and still believe in him,” Mayock said.
Which means regaining health and confidence, two areas that led to him being benched last October by the Titans in favor of Ryan Tannehill.
“We got to rebuild him a little bit to get his confidence back. Build him up from the ground up,” Mayock told reporters in an April conference call. “It’s going to take a little while I think just to get him healthy and where he wants to be, but we’re excited about the quarterback room.”
In looking for a place to relaunch his career, Mariota said at signing, “For me, my priorities in free agency were to, one find a stable head coach and stability within the organization. Secondly, for me, was just to find a team that I felt comfortable with and that, I felt, could help me reach my potential and become the best player that I could be.”
In the months since the pandemic hit, Mariota has embraced the new start and change of scenery that marks his sixth season in the NFL. He has found a new team, moved into a new place, gotten engaged and taken focus.
Putting aside a presumptive battle with Carr, Mariota says, “This journey is more about me trying to find out how I can become the best player that I can be.”
It is a journey that fittingly begins with Gruden and the Raiders.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
