If it comes to who’s beginning under center for the Titans this season, there is no tumult in Tennessee: Marcus Mariota is your starter and Ryan Tannehill is not.
That is the word from Titans coach Mike Vrabel, who reiterated that this weekend which Tannehill, whom Tennessee obtained in a trade from the Miami Dolphins, won’t be competing for starting snaps into training camp.
“His job as a backup — everyone’s occupation for a backup — would be to push the man in front of him,” Vrabel said this weekend, per UPI. “To compete and attempt to make yourself better and attempt to make the team and see how everyone responds.”
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This season will be Tannehill as a QB. He was frequently on the bench in Miami but because of injury rather than performance reasons. Drafted by Miami eighth overall in the 2012 draft, Tannehill began 77 games to start his career. The Dolphins, under new leadership, moved on from Tannehill this offseason, sending him to Tennessee and replacing him with Josh Rosen and Ryan Fitzpatrick.
The prior Fins newcomer has said this offseason that transitioning to a backup function was”definitely tough at times,” but that he is acclimating well to carrying a back seat to Mariota.
“I believe there’s a great deal of mutual respect between people,” Tannehill said in late May. “I’m going to attempt to assist Marcus as much as I can. I think Marcus has done the same for me.”
Even though Mariota’s starting job isn’t immediately threatened by Tannehill’s existence, the Titans franchise QB is on a brief leash this season. Mariota is entering the fifth and final year of his rookie deal without an assurance that he will get a new contract in the club.
The former second overall pick has dealt with injuries and struggled with unsteady play throughout the previous four seasons, like Tannehill. Mariota sat out the last two matches of this 2018 campaign with a stinger, ceding duties to usher Tennessee into the postseason into Blaine Gabbert. The Titans could not get the job done, dropping their season finale to the rival Indianapolis Colts at home on”Sunday Night Football.”
The exchange for Tannehill appeared a reply to the pain of past year’s conclusion. Tennessee needed better Mariota insurance, for this year and possibly a Mariota-less season in the not too distant future, and Tannehill had the bona fides.
Tennessee is expecting Tannehill flips a switch in Mariota at the latter’s contract year. But whether the presence of a longtime starting signal-caller supporting a franchise quarterback like Mariota will complicate matters at Titans camp remains to be seen.
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