Shutdown Countdown: One draft pick changes the Titans' outlook – Yahoo Sports (blog)

Shutdown Corner is previewing all 32 teams as we get ready for the NFL season, counting down the teams one per day in reverse order of our initial 2015 power rankings. No. 1 will be revealed on Aug. 8, the day before the preseason begins with the Hall of Fame Game in Canton.

NO. 32: TENNESSEE TITANS

The Tennessee Titans gambled by not moving their first-round draft pick.

Let’s assume the Titans got some huge trade offers on draft day for the No. 2 overall pick. It’s impossible to believe that wasn’t the case no matter what was said afterward. Let’s also assume that, despite the denials, a massive offer was floated out there by a certain former Oregon coach now with the Philadelphia Eagles. If the rumors were remotely accurate, the Titans could have pulled the trigger and gotten enough picks and players to stock their roster for years. You can argue it would have been the safe move to take the bounty of picks and players in a trade. If Mariota doesn’t work out, they’ll always wonder what could have been.

But it’s a quarterback league, and the Titans wanted to take their quarterback.

[Yahoo Sports Fantasy Football is back: Sign up for a league today!]

Oregon’s Marcus Mariota could be a star in this league. He has all the physical tools and was a great college quarterback. But nobody really knows if he can translate what he did in college to the NFL. He’ll be learning an entirely new way of doing things.

A major question, for this season and beyond, is how much coach Ken Whisenhunt and his staff adjust to Mariota. Will there be some spread concepts to make him comfortable early on, or do they throw him in the deep end and see if he can swim in a pro-style offense? If there’s some Oregon-style spread offensive concepts, what will be the frequency? The Titans’ draft plan after Mariota indicated they’re not interested in running a college spread offense as a foundation over the long term. It seems Mariota will need to learn a new way and we all know he won’t get the time to learn slowly. Good luck.

Whatever the offense looks like, Mariota gives the Titans star power. No offense to defensive tackle Jurrell Casey, a very good player, but it said something that he was Tennessee’s marquee player. Now the Titans have a star, an identity and something to build around. After a terrible 2-14 season, the franchise needed a shot in the arm. That’s why not accepting a trade offer on draft day might turn out to be the best move for them, after all.

2014 review in less than 25 words: The Titans were bad. Really bad. Lost 14 of their last 15. And they still didn’t get the first pick.

Is the roster better, worse or about the same? The Titans added a few interesting pieces to the defense: cornerback Perrish Cox, outside linebacker Brian Orakpo and safety Da’Norris Searcy. There wasn’t much added to the offense in free agency, but they hope the draft took care of that. The roster is better, but the bar was low.

Best offseason acquisition: When you land the guy you pegged on being your franchise quarterback, then that’s it. Whether it works out remains to be seen, but the Titans should feel today like the drafting of Mariota will change their fortunes for the next decade. That hope is important.

Achilles heel: There’s a talent deficiency everywhere on the roster. There’s no position group that’s incredibly impressive, though they are throwing a lot of numbers at receiver, Chance Warmack and Taylor Lewan could develop and make the offensive line very good, and the Orakpo-Derrick Morgan pass-rushing combination should be solid. But years of mediocre drafts and some misses in free agency are the reasons the Titans are in rebuilding mode.

Position in flux:  It’s no fun to think that a second-round pick is a bust after just one season, but it’s hard to find anyone too excited about running back Bishop Sankey. Sankey didn’t show much as a rookie, with 3.7 yards per carry and only one run longer than 18 yards (it was a 22-yarder). He just didn’t seem dynamic enough to be an impact NFL starter. It’s too early to throw in the towel on Sankey, but it’s fair to say he has work to do. He should get a great chance to establish himself, though rookie fifth-round pick David Cobb is waiting if he falters.

Ready to break out: I can’t pitch Justin Hunter again in this space; that’s not working out. And rookie Dorial Green-Beckham seems like more a work in progress than an instant star. Instead I’ll go with Searcy, who waited for a shot in Buffalo, started 13 games last season and cashed in as a free agent. He’s good against the run, capable against the pass and should have a nice year. Tennessee needs some help in the secondary around cornerback Jason McCourty.

Stat fact: Since Kurt Warner retired after the 2009 season, Whisenhunt’s record as a head coach is 20-44. He had starting quarterbacks like Derek Anderson, John Skelton, Max Hall, Kevin Kolb, Ryan Lindley, Charlie Whitehurst, Jake Locker and Zach Mettenberger in that span. But it’s still not the kind of record that inspires confidence. Maybe Mariota changes it around for him.

Schedule degree of difficulty: They’re in the AFC South, so they get the Jacksonville Jaguars twice. Though, the Jaguars will be similarly excited about getting the Titans twice. The schedule is ranked 26th based on last season’s winning percentages, so at least the Titans have a shot at some wins. 

Burning question

This team’s best-case scenario for the 2014 season: It’s probably based loosely on the story of the 2012 Washington Redskins, when a dynamic Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback was drafted second overall, had a storybook rookie year and teams couldn’t adjust for his first year in the league. I’m not sure the talent around Mariota is good enough to make a playoff appearance like Robert Griffin III did his rookie year, but at least there’s a model for the Titans to draw some hope from.

And here’s the nightmare scenario: It won’t be related to wins and losses, though they don’t want to be 0-16 or something crazy like that. That isn’t going to happen anyway. Not to focus again on the quarterback, but that’s who this franchise’s blueprint revolves around now. If Mariota is totally lost in a pro offense and looks like a really long-term project, that will be bad. For the Titans, coming out of this season with the belief Mariota can be a big-time quarterback is the goal, and everything else is gravy. If Mariota is awful as a rookie it wouldn’t mean he is a lost cause, but it certainly would cause a lot of heartburn.

The crystal ball says: The Titans are probably still going to be near the back of the pack in terms of their record, but that’s OK in the big picture. The goal needs to be competing for AFC South titles a few years into Mariota’s career. And so the real question: 

What does the crystal ball say about Mariota as a rookie?

The best guess is that he’ll have some bad moments as he learns the NFL game but shows more than enough to prove the Titans made the right call. And, probably a very high 2016 draft pick to help him develop.

– – – – – – –

Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab

• Mariota
• TENNESSEE TITANS
• NFL

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.