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Mariota and Winston Get Early Nods for a Reason

Mariota makes his Titans debut tonight against the Falcons.

A few weeks ago Tennessee Titans head coach Ken Whisenhunt tipped his hand, but it wasn’t that much of a secret anyway. When asked about his quarterback depth chart back in July, Whisenhunt replied, “After Marcus?”

And that was it. The secret non secret was out.

It was all of a day later that Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Lovie Smith was asked a similar question. His answer left no doubt either, saying “Jameis Winston is our starting quarterback.”

So there you have it.

There’s an old school of thought that a young quarterback should sit a while. That he should learn from the bench while another quarterback takes the lumps, but that’s just it. That thinking is old. There’s are multiple reasons rookie quarterbacks don’t sit anymore and I’m about to let you in on both of them.

The quarterbacks are more ready to play

College offenses are smarter, better and more potent than ever before. And while pundits and pontificators may talk about the issues of taking a spread quarterback and turning him into a pro-style quarterback, the guys coming into the league now are easily head and shoulders above where quarterbacks were a decade ago development-wise.

Then, it took a special player like Peyton Manning to step in and play as a rookie. Now, it’s expected and if you aren’t ready to take the first snap on opening day, it means that maybe your team shouldn’t have drafted you in the first place.

The current NFL pro version of the offense is kind of a hybrid spread offense anyway. And the things guys like Mariota come in with already (touch, accuracy, leadership, quick delivery) are winning half the battle right there.

As college offenses have become more complex, the quarterbacks have become smarter too. While Winston’s maturity and off-the-field behavior were questioned, no one argued that he’s not a smart kid. His leadership in the huddle, his command of the offense and his Wonderlick score if nothing else proved that. A guy like Bryce Petty out of Baylor has already learned about 80 percent of what he’ll need to know to run a pro team. It wasn’t always like that.

NFL teams now know that athleticism and arm strength aren’t enough to win, but college football has learned that too. JaMarcus Russell was a bust in the NFL and in the modern age of college football, he would have never taken the field at LSU at quarterback in the first place.

This actually starts at the high school level. High school programs are running pro-style and spread offenses now and by the time a guy like Mariota gets on the Titans roster, he’s already thrown 10,000 passes in live game action and when you come from a school like Florida State or Oregon, the “speed of the game” isn’t much of a shock either. Neither is the media attention.

Free agency and modern coaching competence helps teams get good in a hurry

In the old NFL a team picked first for a reason; they were terrible. That’s still the case, but the reason why that team is terrible can be completely different. Before free agency began in 1992, teams could only get better in the draft and through trades, which were rare. The first quarterback taken in that draft was David Klingler by the Cincinnati Bengals. Just look at the roster of that team. How could anyone be expected to win with that wad of toilet fungus.

On top of all that, his coach was Dave Shula. That kid never stood a chance.

Compare that to the team Winston is taking over in Tampa Bay.

Winston is stepping into a much better situation to say the least. Two potential Pro-Bowl caliber receivers, a legitimate running back and offensive line and a defense that has a couple of Pro Bowlers on it too. The Bucs won’t be great this season, but they won’t be 3-13 either. They’ll be anywhere from 6-10 to 9-7 and a tough team to play.

The coaching level in the NFL has also improved exponentially since free agency started. Because teams weren’t actually stuck with their horrible players and everybody played  under the same salary cap, an owner could rightly expect a head coach to get his team to the playoffs in the span of two to three years. In fact, if it a coach didn’t, then he was the problem. It’s why Dave Shula never returned to coach an NFL team. Or Rich Kotite. Or Rich Brooks. Or Joe Bugel. Or Jerry Burns. Or Bruce Coslett. Or Gunther Cunningham. Or Dennis Erickson. Or Wayne Fontes. Or Kevin Gilbride. Or Ray Handley. Or Dick MacPherson, Or Ted Marchibroda. Or Ron Meyer. Or Chris Palmer. Or Jack Pardee. Or Richie Pettibon. Or Vince Tobin. Or Rick Venturi. Or Dave Wannstedt. Or Mike White.

How many of those guys do you remember coaching in the NFL? There’s a reason for that. Free agency has pulled the veil away from crappy coaching and now, if your team isn’t getting better, there’s no question who’s at fault; The head coach. Better coaching creates better players and there’s no question about it. In college and in the pros and these guys are getting that at last. A guy like Wayne Fontes can’t keep a job because he has a Hall of Fame player anymore (Barry Sanders, if you’re curious). No one who lacks skill and talent can last as a coach. That’s good for everybody.

Mariota makes his debut tonight with when the Titans take on the Atlanta Falcons in a preseason game. Winston will lead the Bucs’ first unit against the Minnesota Vikings in an exhibition Saturday. I’m excited to see what they can do.

Written by Adam Greene

Adam Greene is a writer and photographer based out of East Tennessee. His work has appeared on Cracked.com, in USA Today, the Associated Press, the Chicago Cubs Vineline Magazine, AskMen.com and many other publications.

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