Marcus Mariota Contract Issues

Anybody have a real theory as to why offset language is the main stumbling block in negotiations between Marcus Mariota and the Titans?

Is this an agent thing where his representation always gets the language on top picks and so they won't bend without it?

On the Titans side: they're totally screwed if he busts anyway. Are they tight enough against the cap over the next few years that they have to get the offsets and the cap relief if Mariota doesn't make it with them?

It's really confusing. It's bad optics and their young QB is still not signed and fully participating in the off-season program. Bad news.

 

Maybe Mariota's representation is angling to get him traded to the Eagles? I've been wondering how much of the Mariota pick by the Titans was a belief that Chip Kelly would actually step up to the plate and make a huge offer once Mariota was off the board, similar to the Giants offer for Eli once the Chargers took him. This might just be a mismatch where neither the team nor the player is fully invested.

 

It's just a theory and if it's right the problems would be on both sides of the argument. The Titans not giving Mariota offsets after Jameis Winston received them is a glaring provocation on their part and Mariota not willing to just take the slap and get in to start working is another flashing red light.

Both parties have to be thinking Mariota is good for at least 3 years on the deal. Even with a Chip Kelly heist attempt as the agenda the Titans would never have drafted Mariota on the 2 pick if they didn't think he was decent value there. If they took him speculatively without thinking that was the case it was a boneheaded play on their part.

 

For a defensive lineman and a 1st round pick? Maybe. I'm guessing the Titans would want a lot more than that for him and that Chip Kelly already offered them more on draft day and they turned it down.

I'm not a Mariota fan but he is a QB with some promise and the Jets do have a major surplus on the defensive line right now.

If they did that type of deal you'd hope the plan was to stick him on the bench for a year or two and let Geno and Fitzpatrick QB this year.

 

The hype around Mariota was heavy enough that the Titans might have assumed they could get an overload deal for him, especially if one or more teams had already made something approaching that but not quite there in the run up to the draft. Then they draft him and suddenly realize that the deal they could actually get for him wasn't of the RGIII overload variety, it was of the Chip Kelly "have the 20 plus another pick plus Sam Bradford and please take my veteran trash I'm planning to cut anyway" type. The Eli Manning overload deal after the Chargers picked him just wasn't there even with a very interested suitor on the table.

Again, it's just a theory but the Titans are haggling over about $6M on the cap at this point, assuming Mariota isn't a 2 year wonder that implodes somehow, which is a very unlikely prospect. That's a piddling amount to be fighting over when the face of the franchise is the guy you're fighting with and if he works out you're going to be in another white-knuckle negotiation you cannot avoid in 4 years. It's bad business on their part.

Given that it's bad business you have to wonder if it's not motivated by another piece of bad business that preceded it. The drafting of a hyped player to create an overheated market and a record windfall early in the draft. Eli Manning, RGIII, Marcus Mariota - a bridge too far?

 

I can't believe the titans are negotiating this way with their franchise QB. The issue on the table is one that should never hold up this type of negotiation with a very high draft pick who is the face of the franchise.

The Titans are idiots if there's not another agenda in play.

That's why I'm speculating something else might be going on. It makes no sense for the Titans to be holding out on this issue. They're not even vulnerable to future draft picks picked lower in the 1st round demanding offsets because QB is a unique position and the #2 overall is the #2 overall.

 

The Titans doubled down on the standoff with Mariota with CEO Steve Underwood saying they won't give him offset language.

Can you make a player and his agents blink if he doesn't really want to be there in the first place and the worst thing that happens is he re-enters the draft next year?

It wouldn't be good for Mariota if that happened but it would be a bloody disaster for the Titans that would likely get several people fired.

 

It's not clear what the drop dead date is.

I found a couple of sources, not reliable, that say that the Titans have until 30 days before the start of the 2016 League Year to sign or trade Mariota or he is put in the 2016 NFL Draft with a proviso that the Titans may not select him. Based on last year that would be about February 10th 2016, or ten days after the 2015 Super Bowl.

Again, I couldn't find a clear definition of exactly what the deal is. The sources were both fan sites of about the same sophistication as Walter Football.

The interesting question is whether Mariota would choose to challenge the re-entering provision. Most players would never challenge the NFL like that because they'd run the real risk of being blackballed, which has happened to at least 1 player in Maurice Clarett already.

Mariota has a Chip in his back pocket so he might choose to fight the NFL, knowing the Eagles would pick him even if he lost. If he somehow won the fight the league's rules would still be set a bit against him but his big Chip would probably fix that for him.