Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota is all set to start for Week 1. Everyone loves the mysterious ceiling of high picks in the NFL Draft, but Mariota isn't quite as alluring heading into fantasy drafts.
Fantasy football draft strategy: Should two-QB owners look at Marcus Mariota?
Rookie quarterbacks usually don’t produce in their first season. Should fantasy football owners in deeper leagues roll the dice on Marcus Mariota?
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There sure are a lot of negatives. The Titans ranked 28th in the NFL during the 2014 season for overall offensive line play and just 29th in pass blocking, according to Pro Football Focus. The Titans offense doesn’t have a lot of weapons right now and ranked just 29th in yards and 30th in points. Plus, the Titans did not have a single wide receiver inside of the top 50 for receiving yards. After all, the Titans picked second in the draft for a reason.
If you’re into high-profile media picks, you might want to know ESPN’s Jon Gruden made Mariota his pick for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. Sure, that honor doesn’t coincide with fantasy value, but he’s certainly going to have some signature games in order to earn that distinction. Additionally, Sports Illustrated’s Don Banks picked Mariota to win that award.
On the down side, Mariota did say stats “don’t matter” to him and he’s more concerned about winning. Of course, he did say he liked how Mike Vick added all those rushing yards. We all know that rushing quarterbacks have higher floors and can turn in some massive fantasy lines when everything clicks.
Fantasy impact: Obviously, if you’re in a standard league with one quarterback and less than 16 owners, you’re not looking at Mariota. On the other hand, owners in two-QB leagues can give him a look. He’s not going inside of the top 20 QBs taken and that’s for good reason. He’s more of a QB3, but there is at least some upside.
