MARIOTA MAKING THE MOST OF HIS 2ND CHANCE IN ATLANTA
For Marcus Mariota, the loss of confidence was the biggest blow.
He’d experienced so much success, from winning the Heisman Trophy to being the No. 2 pick in the NFL Draft.
Then, for one of the rare times in his life, he wasn’t good enough.
“You go through a process of kind of looking within and reflecting,” Mariota remembered. “Throughout that journey for me, I kind of knew that I had to find my confidence to be able to play at a high level. When you get your confidence taken away from you, it’s tough as an athlete because I think that’s truly the only mental weapon you have.”
This past Sunday, Mariota completed 13 of 14 passes, two of them for touchdowns, and ran for a score as the Atlanta Falcons surprised the San Francisco 49ers 28-14.
The Falcons (3-3), who were supposed to be in a massive rebuilding job, are surprisingly tied with Tampa Bay atop the NFC
South. And Mariota, who was supposed to merely mind the gap between longtime Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan and whatever prospect the team could land in next year’s draft, is showing flashes of the form that was supposed to carry him to NFL stardom.
He was even picked as the NFC offensive player of the week, an honor that was out of reach the past 21⁄2 years as he rode the bench for two teams.
Coming off a brilliant career at Oregon, Mariota was taken by the Titans with the second pick of the 2015 draft. He was immediately handed the starting job and only heightened expectations by throwing four touchdowns passes in his very first game.
Yet, even as he guided Tennessee to three straight winning seasons and a playoff win during the 2017 campaign, his passing numbers were ordinary. Mariota’s running ability gave the offense a bit of an extra weapon, but the grumbling among Titans fans only grew as their heralded quarterback was unable to push the team to the next level.
Then, during a dismal performance in Week 6 of the 2019 season, when he completed just 7 of 18 passes for 63 yards with two interceptions in a 16-0 loss at Denver,
Titans coach Mike Vrabel decided he had seen enough.
Mariota was yanked. Ryan Tannehill took over, guiding Tennessee from a 2-4 start to a surprising run to the AFC championship game. Mariota’s career as a Titan was over. He wouldn’t start another game in the NFL for 1,064 days.
Instead, he moved on to Las Vegas, where he spent two years backing up Derek Carr and getting scant playing time with the Raiders. Just when it looked as if Mariota’s career might be on its last legs, he hooked up with his former offensive coordinator in Tennessee, Arthur Smith.
Smith has seen Mariota’s confidence grow with each start, especially when the Falcons won a couple of games and kept things close in their losses. The coach saw Mariota’s demeanor having an impact on those around him.
“These guys believe in him. Those are things you can’t put in a stat sheet,” Smith said.
“He didn’t play for 21⁄2 years, so it took a couple of games. He was a little rusty here and there. But I feel like every game, he’s getting more comfortable.”