Tennessee Titans: Marcus Mariota’s biggest weakness is pocket presence
Pro Football Focus called Marcus Mariota’s biggest weakness his pocket presence, and I think it’s hard to disagree after Week 3.
No matter how big of a Marcus Mariota fan you are, you can’t say that the loss on Thursday night to the Jaguars wasn’t Mariota’s fault. It wasn’t only Mariota’s fault, but there were some things he could’ve done differently and the Titans would be 2-1 right now.
One thing is to get the ball to open receivers downfield and in the end zone. That seemed like something Mariota struggled to do on Thursday especially after missing Delanie Walker in the end zone twice, once in which he was wide open, to turn the ball over on downs.
But that’s not his biggest weakness (yes there’s a bigger weakness). His biggest weakness is his pocket presence, according to Pro Football Focus, and they’re right.
"“For such an athletic player, Mariota struggles to find a rhythm in the pocket,” Cam Mellor wrote. “He takes off more than most, scrambling out of the pocket on 63 attempts since the 2017 season, the sixth-most scrambles among all quarterbacks. He has invited 12 sacks on his own over that time as well, finding unnecessary pressure far too often.”"
At least three or four of Mariota’s nine sacks could have been avoided on Thursday night. There were multiple times where he tried to scramble out of the pocket just to run into a defender that was right in his face. The other times he stood in the pocket too long and didn’t get rid of the ball.
Seventeen times Mariota has been sacked through the first three weeks of the season. That’s the most in sacks for a quarterback in the first three weeks of the season since 2002.
If the Titans plan on doing anything this year, then Mariota is going to have to improve his awareness when he’s in the pocket. An injury-prone quarterback can not be taking as many hits as he has and stays healthy all year.
Next. Where do the Titans go from here. dark
The offensive line is struggling to give Mariota enough time to throw the ball and bringing back Taylor Lewan will help that, but his backup has been holding down his side of the line, so unless there’s some movement on the offensive line not much will change.