Marcus Mariota: Can he be an effective NFL QB?
By J.P. Scott
As I survey the college football galaxy looking for stars, it quickly becomes apparent that none shine brighter than Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota. For the third consecutive season, the junior signal called from Honolulu has the Ducks right in the thick of the national championship hunt to start the season.
Right or wrong, many fans and media of both college football and college basketball tend to look past what a player is actually doing on the field right now and instead measure their talent by how they think the player will fare at the professional level. As was the case in Johnny Manziel in 2013, Marcus Mariota is being judged that way in 2014.
I’m here to tell you that we can all stop guessing. Marcus Mariota’s game is going to translate to the NFL just fine.
Most of us are familiar with Mariota’s video game numbers and highlight-reel plays. We’ve gotten a healthy dose of both throughout the past two college football seasons simply by watching any college football recap. Rarely, however, do we get the chance to sit down and study an NFL-prospect against a field full of NFL-caliber talent.
We got to do exactly that this past saturday when Mariota’s Oregon Ducks hosted the Michigan State Spartans at Autzen Stadium. Michigan State was widely regarded as the best defensive team in the land in 2013. With the Spartans returning several starters and key contributors from a season ago, most had them pegged to repeat that success in 2014.
Marcus Mariota did not disappoint.
Looking just at his stat line, Mariota had just about as good of a day as one could want against the Spartan defense. He complete 17 of 28 passes for 318 yards and three touchdowns. He even tucked the ball and ran with it nine times for 42 yards (4.7 yard per carry). Perhaps most impressive about those stats against Michigan State was the fact that he never turned the ball over. This was a Michigan State defense that logged over one interception per game a year ago.
Beyond the stats, Mariota carries himself like an NFL quarterback with the “it” factor. At 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, he certainly looks the part of an NFL signal caller. When I start to see him making calls at the line and going through his progressions in a fairly complicated offense, any concerns I may have had about him from the neck up are gone in an instant.
Throwing motion is something you hear a lot about when the NFL evaluates college quarterbacks. There should be no concerns about Mariota on that front. He has a quick, overhead delivery with minimal wind-up — never really projecting a throw before it leaves his hand.
Something else I saw against Michigan State was his ability to look-off coverage — something many NFL quarterbacks have trouble doing consistently. I believe it was his vision as much as anything else that kept Michigan State guessing throughout their matchup. This will only improve when he get to the NFL.
In terms of his footwork in the pocket, I was beyond impressed. I had a chance to watch Mariota last season a couple of times and his footwork was a concern. On Saturday, it was obvious that Mariota had made footwork a point of emphasis in the offseason. Rather than exploiting his freakish athleticism to avoid the rush, Mariota calmly sidestepped defenders all night. There were times when he reminded me a little bit of Tom Brady with his movement in the pocket.
We all know, however, that it’s Marcus Mariota’s speed that sets him apart from other prototypical signal callers. You don’t see many 6-foot-4 quarterbacks who can tuck the ball and float like he can. When he does, it’s smooth and controlled. There’s not a lot of juking and spinning, just an efficient use of speed to get exactly where he needs to go without taking too many risks with the ball. Basically, he’s the anti-Manziel when he runs — a more controlled version of Colin Kaepernick.
I honestly came away from the Michigan State game much more impressed than I thought I would. In years past, it seemed like Oregon had so much highlight-reel talent at the skill positions that Mariota almost got lost in the mix while watching the Ducks unless he broke a long touchdown run. That’s no longer the case in Eugene. Mariota is the main attraction and it was a pleasure watching him operate.
If he can navigate the rest of the schedule with the success he had against Michigan State and remain injury free throughout the season, I see no reason he shouldn’t be the first quarterback taken in the 2015 NFL Draft and have success in the right situation almost immediately.