Allow me to be the voice of reason: There isn’t a QB controversy with the Titans, so don’t waste your time talking about one

This will be the only Marcus Mariota vs. Ryan Tannehill post that I write. Ever. You can take that to the bank. Also, this post is designed to appeal to reasonable people. That means that some people won’t be able to take it. That’s how these things work.

Oh, and one more thing, this is also not designed to be a post that attempts to prove that Mariota is a definitively better quarterback than Tannehill. I do believe that to be the case, but I am not about to go down the rabbit hole of arguing career stats with no context.

The Titans took the field for their first OTA yesterday and people are already all in on a quarterback competition. I was watching A to Z sports this morning and they are already talking about how bad Mariota looked in practice and how he has never been a good practice player. Yep, the same Mariota that didn’t throw a pick in his rookie training camp. You can say a lot of things about Mariota’s play, even when healthy, but this revisionist history is just dumb at this point.

Mariota is going to be the starting quarterback for the Titans in 2019 as long as he is healthy. Mike Vrabel confirmed that after yesterday’s practice. Trying to drum up a quarterback controversy on the internet is a waste of time because there just isn’t one.

Mariota has shown flashes of being a franchise quarterback. He has also shown flashes of being less than mediocre. The most important thing for the Titans in 2019 and beyond is to figure out which of those he actually is. There are two franchise ruining outcomes for the Titans and Mariota. One would be to give him a $100 million contract if he is average. The second would be to let him walk if he is actually a franchise quarterback.

The Titans have to figure out which one he is in 2019. They cannot do that without being fully committed to Mariota. It’s the right way to handle it, so do yourself a favor and don’t waste your time obsessing over OTA practice performances and online QB controversies.