Marcus Mariota's Pro Day, A Lose-Lose Situation

When Marcus Mariota stepped out for his pro-day at Oregon this past week, it was a lose-lose situation for the Quarterback no matter what he did on the field. Mariota, who is slated to be the second QB drafted after Jameis Winston had nothing to gain from his work-out. Nearly, the entire league was in attendance to see the Heisman Trophy winner throw selected passes to his receivers.

Mariota didn’t awe the scouts at the workout and seemingly left some still wondering the same questions as when they walked in, Can he consistently throw the deep ball? For all intents and purposes, Mariota will be picked anywhere between 2-7 on draft day. What he did during his pro-day could only hurt his draft stock. Questions about Mariota have always been the same, can he run a pro-style offense, Does he have the arm strength to compete in the NFL and can he throw the long ball. His workout however didn’t really answer any of those questions. So, what was the point of the workout? Mariota did miss a few targets during the routine, so does that mean we should write him-off.

Before jumping to any ludicrous conclusions about Mariota and how he will fare in the pro’s, it’s important to take a step back and look at a similar scenario which took place exactly 12 months ago. Coming out of college, Louisville’s Teddy Bridgewater was facing similar questions to Mariota. On his pro-day, Bridgewater completely blew it to a point that he fell from being a guaranteed top 10 pick to being drafted 32^nd by the Minnesota Vikings. Bridgewater did admirably well in his rookie seasons, much better in fact than Blake Bortles the 3^rd pick who struggled to settle into Jaguars team and Johnny Manziel, the 22^nd pick who ended up in rehab after his first season. Pro-days can make you look great, as the case with Bortles, but with Mariota, it was a lose-lose situation, we’ll have to wait and see where he gets drafted in a few weeks.