This is another problem. Murlakey's incompetence was overshadowed by the outstanding play of Mariota and as a result people actually think that he's a competent coach. He's an awful coach, that for some reason, elects to run an O system that even coaches in the early 2000s would call archaic. Maritoa isn't perfect and the durability may be a a problem in the long run, but the "under center" crap is just incorrect.
I for one am still enjoying those 2 meaningless December wins. What do we need Mariota for, those two December wins were much more meaningful for our future. I can't wait for next draft season when these same wait for next year for QB posters are telling us to wait for the following year, while KC have locked up their QB position for the next decade.
Whether Mahomes gets snaps or not will depend on how the Chiefs are doing. Eli got snaps as the Giants threw away the playoffs in 2004. Not sure Andy Reid will be up for that with a team that went 12-4 last year. Really not sure he'll do that. I expect unless Mahomes is clearly the better option in camp that Alex Smith will start until the Chiefs are eliminated from the playoffs, a scenario unlikely to happen before week 14 or 15 or so.
Mariota hurt both knees his rookie season and broke his leg season 2. Edit: might be left knee and right shoulder his rookie year. The internet is turning into a fake news device that makes very little stand up to multiple sourcing when you bother to do it. I think it is more of an open question than ever whether or not he's going to be able to stand up to the rigors of the NFL over time. Right now I'd say the odds are a bit less than 50/50 but we'll see what happens this year. 16 starts would dramatically raise his odds. Another serious injury would put him squarely in RGIII territory. 50/50 on that. He's very slight for an NFL QB. He's built tall and thin with a lot of surface area to take damage and not a lot of muscle to cushion that.
Tearing his ACL twice would put him in RG3 territory, sure. If anything he's more likely to be in the Big Ben territory, where he's out 2-3 weeks a year, but never suffers a serve injury that puts him out for a season like an RG3 did. He does not take take the punishment that RG3 did as a runner. It was clear even in Baylor that RG3 would be injury prone in the NFL... that guy took 3-5 monstrous hits a game, due in part to his reluctance to slide.
