Good stuff from the Tennessean:
The
Titans are going to play to Marcus Mariota’s strengths.
General manager Jon Robinson set that goal when he
fired coach Mike Mularkey, despite consecutive winning seasons and a playoff victory, and the Titans are following through.
That’s the big takeaway after the Titans lured two up-and-coming offensive assistants to join the staff of defense-minded head coach
Mike Vrabel. Tennessee named former Rams
offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur to the same position Tuesday morning – giving him the play-calling responsibilities he lacked in his lone season in Los Angeles – and paired him with quarterbacks coach
Pat O’Hara, a former Texans assistant whose addition was reported last week but has not yet been announced by the team.
Mariota regressed in several major statistical categories in his third NFL season, throwing a career-low 13 touchdowns and career-high 15 interceptions in Mularkey’s “exotic smashmouth” scheme, which featured tight formations and a run-heavy approach. The offense was a significant departure from the up-tempo spread attack Mariota piloted to great success at Oregon, where he won the Heisman Trophy before the Titans drafted him with the second overall pick in 2015.
The young franchise quarterback wasn’t entirely ineffective this season – he expertly ran the no-huddle, calling his own plays and using tempo, as well as his tremendous running ability, to jump-start an oft-stagnant offense.
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