We STILL don’t know who Marcus Mariota is as a quarterback

In his fourth year, somehow we know less about Marcus Mariota’s ability to be an effective quarterback than did when he first entered the league.

At his best, he’s a talented quarterback who can make the fringe plays most quarterbacks can’t. The peak of Mariota’s skill was on full display in the Titans’ 28-14 win over the Cowboys on Monday Night Football.

Look at this throw in the second quarter. Darius Jennings is covered by three Cowboys defenders, but Mariota is able to squeeze the ball in for a big gain down the field. That’s a high-difficulty throw (and maybe even an ill-advised one, but we’ll let it rock).

At his worst, Mariota is a quarterback who struggles to move the ball and can be a catalyst for negative plays in the backfield. A prime example of that is the 11 sacks he took earlier this season against the Baltimore Ravens. The sacks weren’t completely his fault, but he did play a role in a handful of them.

More than three years after the Titans drafted him No. 2 overall, we’re still trying to figure out who Mariota is as a quarterback. So far, his career has two different chapters: the success of the first two years followed by the inconsistent play of the last two years.

It’s damn near impossible to start off a career better than Marcus Mariota did. In the first NFL game, Mariota threw for four touchdowns and zero interceptions in a win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and No. 1 overall pick Jameis Winston. Mariota had a perfect passer rating in his starting debut — something no quarterback has ever done.

In the first two years of his career, Mariota threw for 6,244 yards, 45 touchdowns, 19 interceptions, and chipped in another 601 yards and four touchdowns on the ground. He was a legitimate playmaker for Tennessee and looked like he was developing into one of the league’s elite quarterbacks.

Mariota was able to hold his steady play in the first two years despite a couple of coaching changes. Ken Whisenhunt was the head coach for the first seven games of Mariota’s career. When Whisenhunt was fired during the 2015 season, Mike Mularkey was promoted to interim head coach and was then retained after the season. Terry Robiskie then stepped into the offensive coordinator role, replacing Jason Michael.

In 2016, Mariota had a great year with the Mularkey-Robiskie offense, even though their downhill, smashmouth style of football didn’t suit his style of play. Mariota threw a career-high 26 touchdowns and just nine interceptions that season.

With the way Mariota was playing in Mularkey and Robiskie’s offense, it looked like nothing could slow him down from becoming the quarterback that he was drafted to be.

Then, Mariota hit a stretch of lower-quality play starting in the 2017 season.

After the explosive start to his career, Mariota hit a bit of a wall in his third year. The success that he previously saw with Mularkey and Robiskie came to a screeching halt. Since the start of the 2017 season, Mariota has thrown for just 18 touchdowns and 20 interceptions in 22 games.

Despite making the playoffs and winning a game in the Wild Card Round last season, the Titans offense took a huge nosedive from where they were.

In 2016, the Titans ranked 10th in the NFL in adjusted yards per attempt. In 2017, that ranking dropped to 25th and the Titans had problems moving the ball through the air. Even with the playoff win, the Titans ended up moving on from Mularkey and Robiskie. They brought in current head coach Mike Vrabel and offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur to lead the Titans and try to get the offense back on track.

For a young quarterback, that’s a lot of overturn. Three head coaches and three offensive coordinators in four years is a whirlwind for any quarterback, let alone a young one still trying to find their footing in the NFL.

With Vrabel and LaFleur, the results have been pretty similar to their 2017 season. Going into the game with the Cowboys, the Titans were 28th in adjusted yards per attempt. LaFleur’s offense stylistically looks like the wide open, spread system Mariota played in at Oregon, but there hasn’t been any improvement.

Perhaps Mariota just needed to get comfortable with the new offensive system he’s playing in because he did have his best game of the season Monday night in Dallas. Mariota completed 21 of his 29 passes for 240 yards, two touchdowns, with another touchdown coming on the ground. The Titans put Mariota in a good position to make plays with his legs in general. Outside of the touchdown run, Mariota ran for five first downs as well.

For what it’s worth, this was the first game Mariota has felt “100%” this season after suffering nerve damage in his throwing elbow in Week 1. He has dealt with injuries every year of his career and has yet to play a full 16-game season.

Those are the types of games that give confidence in Mariota as an ascending quarterback who can regain his mojo, but they have been few and far between over the past season and a half.

The Titans offense is 30th in standard down success rate on the season, struggling to consistently move the ball on a down-to-down basis. But they have to be optimistic that they can get things headed in the right direction after their performance against Dallas.

The Titans have a tough game next week against the Patriots, but they’re not out of the playoff race by any means. They currently sit at 4-4 and the back half of their schedule is laden with AFC South teams, as well as matchups against the Jets, Giants, and Washington and

That’s a favorable schedule in Tennessee’s bid to make the postseason again. The problem is that it’s hard to predict what Mariota will do next. With his play, he’s been on both extremes of the spectrum over his career.

But maybe this time, Mariota’s latest game is a sign of what’s to come, and not a blip on the radar.