Facing Jets, Titans Have Mariota and …?

The $64,000 question is, will Marcus Mariota prove so good that he can turn the dysfunctional mess that is the Tennessee Titans into a contender? Actually, given the contract Mariota signed before the season after being chosen by the Titans as the second pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, that question is worth about a thousand times more than $64,000.

Tennessee certainly won’t be a contender this season -- except possibly when it comes to securing one of the top selections in the 2016 Draft. The Titans come into Sunday’s game against the Jets at MetLife Stadium with a woeful 3-9 mark, despite Mariota putting together one of the best rookie seasons a QB has ever had.

The Titans are already on their second coach in 2015.

"When you're not winning, that's when change happens in the NFL," Titans president Steve Underwood said upon canning Ken Whisenhunt, who was only midway through his second season with the franchise.

Of course, when you want to start winning, perhaps the last guy in the world you would bring in is exactly the one Tennessee chose. Interim coach Mike Mularkey, who’d already been axed from two other head coaching gigs for his penchant for losing, was 7-26 in his last 33 contests before being tapped by the Titans.

Hey, what do you expect when the team’s ownership group is -- literally -- the Adams family?

The coaching change was eerily reminiscent of one made by a certain local franchise two decades ago, when aging owner Leon Hess, saying he wanted to “win now,” fired Pete Carroll after just one year at the helm, replacing him with Rich Kotite. One guy went on to win it all both in college and the NFL. The other, after he left Gang Green, became the JV badminton coach at a middling high school program in Guam.

After a 2-3 start with several more losses on the way, Mularkey has a better chance of being Kotite’s assistant next season than he does of being on the Titans’ sideline. But one thing is for sure -- Mariota will still be their signal-caller.

While he enjoyed a collegiate career as good as any QB ever has, Mariota was projected to endure severe growing pains in the pros, where the type of spread offense he played in at Oregon is basically a nonentity. But last year’s Heisman winner has proven to be an awfully quick study, and he should only get better in the coming years -- if the Titans’ bumbling ways don’t drag him down.

I think Mariota will prevail -- and will end up wearing the yellow blazer one day. Of course, I thought the same thing about Mark Sanchez coming out of USC.

But however great Mariota may end up being, and no matter how good he already is, there’s no way the Jets should lose this weekend. Yes, they’ve played down to the competition too often this season. But with a playoff spot on the line, expect that they’ll come to play. And that should be more than enough to come out of it at 8-5.

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