Marcus Mariota to have surgery Wednesday, out 4-5 months

Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota is scheduled for surgery on Wednesday.

Christmas Eve was not a good day to be a quarterback in the National Football League. Three quarterbacks went down with a broken leg, including Tennessee Titans’ QB Marcus Mariota.

Mariota’s injury came on Saturday during their shocking loss in Jacksonville. He was tackled while trying to scramble out of the path of defenders, and suffered a rather ugly break. A To Z Sports tweeted out the clip of the incident, and circled when the injury happened. Fair warning to those with weak stomachs, this is a bit graphic, so proceed with caution.

Titans head coach Mike Mularkey spoke with the media on Monday morning, and said Mariota will be having surgery on Wednesday in Charlotte, under the knife of Bob Anderson. He will be having a plate inserted where the fracture is, and his recovery time is expected to be somewhere between four and five months.

If there’s a silver lining, the Titans are officially out of playoff contention, and have nothing to play for next week. It’s a definite change of pace from the Oakland Raiders, who lost Derek Carr the same injury on Saturday. The Raiders are in the playoffs, and the loss of Carr is a big hit to the team.

In the case of the Titans, it comes at the end of the season, and allows him to recover during the offseason. With the given timetable of his return, it could possibly have him back on the field for OTA’s next season. The hope is he won’t miss much offseason work, if any.

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In the meantime, the Titans still have one more game to finish out the season. They will host the Houston Texans on Sunday in Nashville, a week after the Texans claimed the AFC South title. Matt Cassel will start what will be a meaningless game for both teams, and Alex Tanney will be brought up from the practice squad to be his backup.