Maybe not a back up for too long. Good chance Tannehill is the starter by week whatever, pick a number.
He doesn't have a chance to beat Marcus out or steal the job from him. He does have a chance to start when Marcus gets hurt which seems inevitable.
Marcus did play through a lot last year and showed some incredible toughness which the great one's do, but then he missed time so I don't know how you evaluate that but to say he definitely got tougher last year.
The Titans didn't do enough to make fans happy with the right side of the line. Are we correct? We'll see. If Marcus gets hurt from a sack coming through the right guard, GM JRob is going to "hear it" from fans.
Marcus' efficiency in the red zone is best ever. His 4th quarter efficiency stats are excellent. Everyone in the free world wants better production all over and better efficiency in the other three quarters. I get it, but he won't get benched. That will never happen unless this changes. There isn't an NFL coach that wouldn't love a guy getting it done in the 4th or red zone. What happens is everything else gets blamed- the game plan, the play calls, the D...not the QB.
The quarterback position is far more athletic in the last so many years. Tannehill is old school mobile. Marcus is new style mobile. They are not close. Marcus is one of the best athletes at QB in the league. Look up his 40 time if you forget.
The Titans have absolutely botched his development as far as being mobile. Once he got hurt, they started wanting him to stay inside the tackle and pretend he's Dan Marino stuck in mud. Years of this have made this wonderful athlete often confused as to what he can and can't do with his legs. Tannehill will not have this prob whatsoever. New OC Arthur Smith is letting Marcus move to get comfortable. It's just highlights from OTAs but you can see him moving around more. Tannehill has an advantage in this regard, but hopefully this is squashed with Smith taking the leash off.
Last but oh so not least, you could probably play QB when Henry is "hot." Lewan and Walker talked about Smith wanting more secondary blocks. Smith is only content with them winning the LOS, he wants the line getting to their secondary blocks. He has a TE working like an H-back ala Joe Gibbs. Just because they added two WRs, and a backup QB, does not mean they forgot Henry rocked to close out the year.
The Titans have never had a balanced offense since Marcus came. Even if the stats show it for one game, I promise you it didn't play out that way. Every OC has discussed it, but he's always been the QB of a running team. Smith (Gibbs again) is determined to be two dimensional. This, and only this, will make the Titans QB something worth grabbing in FF and worth discussing who the better starter is.
I've been discussing the O alot thus far. It's oh my early, but thus far Taywan Taylor seems to be the key to watch for. Their offense is short, quick rhythm passes and runs. When Taylor's speed comes in, suddenly they're building toward "taking a shot" and they look good. Friends noticed this with the latter units and some UDFAs too. Davis battles an awful lot and needs to just blow by guys sometimes. He could be the "take a shot" guy (and better than Taywan too) but he won't stop pushing and bumping and doing all that jazz and just be off to the races. Brown has done a lot of slot work with Humphries.
So to reiterate, this isn't unlike what Titans fans have seen the last couple years. Without Taylor everything is short and minimal, including the runs. When Taylor is in, and they're working toward taking a shot, they are suddenly diverse with short passes all over and effective runs, then boom a shot to Taylor. Even if Taylor misses it, the O looked good. So on the one hand, it's a bit much to take from OTAs but on the other, we have absolutely seen this same prob.
I expect they continue to tweak Brown's speed since it's gone so well. I expect they can get Davis to stop playing patty-cake. I expect Walker and Humphries to be able to sell the short and get open deep how they have countless times. For now though, Taylor is the only one that consistently can get open deep.
While I'm at it- Tajae had a trade day. He was fantastic and the focus of the offense day one and hasn't been since. In today's "video-taping" world this usually means they wanted tape to send to prospective teams. This is an outstanding predictor of future trades or cuts. I'd pick him up (last spot) in dynasty. If he goes to a short passing game offense, his hands will be gems. If he goes to a move the ball well offense, he'll be meh and you can cut him. This should be a nice easy end of roster play for FF while injuries and other stuff can be a bear usually.