Uh...we have a damn good team that is ONLY held back by Mariota?
How was our run game most of the year? Great? Good? Poor? It was poor most of the year. So poor Derrick Henry was questioning himself why he was so bad and why the coaching staff had to go with Lewis more. You might wonder why Lewis was poor considering he was excellent in NE. Perhaps because our vaunted OL was playing horribly. Conklin was terrible all year until Kelly replaced him and played well. Spain was so bad he got benched. Kline was so good we didn't want him back. And Jones was so good he gave up the most sack of all NFL OC's despite the fact that we threw the ball fewer than most teams.
Yup, the OL was not great for the first 2/3 of the year. But don't for one moment sit there and tell me that a lot of those pressures that Marcus got were not his own fault. I sat in the stadium for the entirety of probably the worst game I've ever seen in professional football when we played the Ravens. Some sacks were quick pressure by a good D play or a blown block. But just as many or more were Marcus seeing the rush and his play completely breaking down. And that went on all season.
And the run game was not great in the first half of the season. That was the part of the year where we went 5-6 and 1 of those wins came with Gabbert starting. What did Marcus do during that time to elevate the team? He got us a big win against the Pats and somehow pulled one out of a hat against the Eagles. Those were awesome! Now if he could only do that on a consistent basis we'd be in business.
But the only thing that actually got this team in the win column and in the playoff hunt was not Marcus, it was the OL and run game finding their legs. That's a problem for Marcus. This is a team game, yes. But there's a reason the QB is the most important position on field. With the way the cap, FA, and the draft is set up, you can't just go out there and build a juggernaut team that's just missing a QB. This isn't college, you can't be Alabama and Ohio State and recruit the best talent in the country and win in spite of your QB. That position is the one spot that can make a major impact on every game and differentiate your team from everyone else. Marcus doesn't do that for us right now. We've had 4 years and we're still sitting here arguing if he ever can. That's a problem!
Walker was hurt pretty much the whole year and Smith got hurt just when he started showing signs of figuring it out. CD was our only good wr and even he was up and down. Taylor was even more inconsistent and Matthews quit on the team early on.
Is this the vaunted offense Mariota is holding back?
Injuries suck, but they're part of the game. Does Brady/Rodgers/Mahomes/Big Ben/Brees/Wilson/Rivers/Watson/Luck's games go to complete crap when they lose a receiving weapon? No. They find other ways to get the job done.
Am I saying that Marcus is the worst QB ever, or that he doesn't shine in spots? Absolutely not! He's looked great in some games, and that drives me nuts because it just makes no sense why he looks so terrible in others.
In fairness, Mariota was up and down too. Some games he was quite good and other games he was not.
We added the top free agent OG to play LG and we know they'd like to improve the IOL more. Could be a draft pick...maybe they'd consider moving Conklin to RG and leave Kelly at RT. But that line has been getting a lot of consideration for improvement.
We added the top slot wr in free agency to improve our wr corp and more help is expected via the draft.
And yes, we added a good QB to be Mariota's backup and to push him. And the only reason we aren't looking at RB is that Henry had a monster December and an improved OL should help Lewis get back to form.
The defense that finished ranked so highly was a problem in some big games too! If you watched all the games, you'd know this. Indy marched up and down the field against our vaunted D and we got little Edge pressure from our OLB's (Morgan and Rak). And when Casey was out, we could only get pressure by blitzing ppl up the middle. Our pass rush need help and got some in Landry and Wake...but we likely need more.
I also wouldn't rule out them wanting a true NT given how the Texans ran all over us as did Indy quite a bit though they may hope a better partner for Casey up the middle and more PT for Evans may solve that problem.
This is a good team that had a lot of problems last year. At times, Mariota was one of them. But he was far from the only one and to suggest otherwise is to be the kind of fan that ignores everything except the QB. When we win, it's all the QB. When we lose, it's all the qb.
This is a team sport. We need the whole team to play better and more consistently if we want a championship!
Agree that the OL and defensive pass rush need help. Rak and Morgan were pathetic at getting a pass rush, so hopefully we can get better there. But you're making my point for me that we need better QB play when you point out other teams shredding our defense. At some point in this league, your D can only be so good. We had a top rated defense and even it still got shredded. It will be very rare that you'll ever have a teams D be so shut down that you can get by on scoring 17 points a game. We need a playmaker at our QB position to compete with the rest of the league, and Marcus has not proved that he's it week in and week out.
Not saying at all that it's all on the QB whether we win or lose, but like I said earlier, with the way the NFL is setup now, the QB is the one position that has the most control over whether you win or lose. They differentiate your team more than any other single position. And this isn't a thread about what to do with Henry next year, or the defense. It's what to do with Marcus.
The answer to that question is, he's got this one year left, and if he doesn't show marked improvement, he's out.