Tennessee Titans: Marcus Mariota could be set up for record-breaking payday

The Philadelphia Eagles and Carson Wentz agreed to a 4-year, $128 million contract extension with $107.9 million guaranteed. This is good news for Marcus Mariota when he starts negotiating a new contract.

After Carson Wentz‘s newest contract, he is now the highest paid quarterback in the NFL and the trend of paying quarterbacks more and more each year continues. Earlier this year, Russell Wilson signed an extension with the Seattle Seahawks and at the time he was the highest paid quarterback in the NFL with $107 million guaranteed.

Every franchise is going to continue to try to outdo everyone else when their quarterback’s contract is up. Nothing is going to change when it comes to Marcus Mariota, although that might be a bad use of roughly $110 million of guaranteed money.

Mariota has been projected to get somewhere around $130 million over five years before Wentz’s deal. Of course, his new contract is going to change that a little bit. That number will go up by a few million unless another quarterback gets more, then that number will keep climbing.

Mariota is going to have to have a good 2019 to get that money though. That could be the problem, though. He has to have just a good season to get $130 million, not even a really good or great season. Amy Adams Strunk has made it clear that she wants Mariota to stay in Nashville, so he is going to get that money.

If Mariota could stay healthy long-term, then I would agree and say does deserve that money, but as of right now I don’t think it’s worth the investment especially when you can put that money in so many different places and help round out other positions.

Also in Mariota’s defense, he hasn’t been helped with having three head coaches since coming into the league. Fun Fact: this doesn’t help on-field performance even when Mariota is healthy.

Cowboys’ Dak Prescott, Buccaneers’ Jameis Winston, and Rams’ Jared Goff seem to be the next three quarterbacks that will get an extension. Prescott has been in talks with the Cowboys, but they haven’t yet come to an agreement, Goff and the Rams started contract talks a couple of days ago, and with the Bucs hiring Bruce Arians I would assume by the end of the season Winston will have a new contract as well.

So, the market will likely continue to reset when any of those three quarterbacks get an extension. If Winston signs an extension before Mariota, I will guarantee you the Titans will try to outdo the Buccaneers so they can continue to say that Mariota is the better quarterback.

The Titans could franchise tag Mariota, but that would just ultimately be delaying the inevitable unless they aren’t planning on keeping Mariota long-term. The Titans could franchise tag Mariota for a couple of years if they are looking to find Mariota’s replacement until they find that next guy.

I don’t see a situation where Mariota isn’t a Titan in 2020 although that might be the best move for the franchise, but the NFL is ultimately a business so anything could happen.