Marcus Mariota's No Good, Very Bad Year
The former Heisman winner had an incredible chance for redemption. Where did it go wrong?
Marcus Mariota’s first [and only] year with the Atlanta Falcons was not great. It definitely wasn’t good. In fact, to say that it was a horrifying, shitshow, dumpster fire of a train wreck would not be an understatement.
The former Oregon Duck spent much of his career in Tennessee, after being drafted 2nd overall in 2015 by the Titans. Mariota found limited success: he failed to break 3500 yards in a single season, struggled with turnovers, and never found his footing. Notably, in 2019, Mariota played under Arthur Smith’s leadership as offensive coordinator. When Smith found himself without a quarterback in the 2022 off season, and Marcus Mariota as a free agent, the pair easily reunited. Mariota signed a two year, $18.75M deal with the Atlanta Falcons, and quickly got to work with his former OC.
Mariota had seemingly landed in a good spot. Weapons such as Drake London, Kyle Pitts, Cordarrelle Patterson were hard to miss, and Atlanta sported one of the strongest rushing attacks in the league for support. Additionally, the system that Arthur Smith was attempting to implement was not too different from what Mariota was used to in Nashville. What could possibly go wrong?
Everything, apparently.
Well, at least for the first two weeks of Atlanta Falcons “football.”
In Week 1 vs the Saints, the Atlanta Falcons had stormed to a 26-10 lead, with just under 13 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. After allowing 2 speedy Saints touchdowns, the Falcons were up just 26-24, but with a key advantage—they had possession at 3rd & 1, while the Saints had no timeouts and just 1:40 left on the clock. If the Falcons converted this 3rd down, they survived and won the game. Then, this happened.
Marcus Mariota wasted away a key opportunity with a costly turnover. Keep those words in the back of your mind for now. Unsurprisingly, the Saints kicked the go-ahead 51 yard field goal and won the game, meaning that Mariota had snatched defeat from the jaws of sure victory in a stunning display of incompetence.
In Week 2 against the Rams, poor play from the Falcons early on gave the Rams a 28-3 [yes, very funny, get it all out] lead midway through the 3rd quarter. However, the Falcons rallied: two consecutive Mariota passing TDs and a blocked punt reduced the deficit to just 6 points, with the Falcons having possession at the edge of the red zone.
Marcus Mariota wasted away a key opportunity with a costly turnover. With two breathtakingly stupid losses, the Falcons fall to 0-2.
Weeks 3 and 4 saw, well, survivable quarterback play from Marcus Mariota, allowing the Dirty Birds to claw their way back to .500 against the Seahawks and Browns. Both games featured Mariota being carried by excellent running performances by the Falcons backfield, with Mariota posting an exceptionally shitty 41.3 passer rating against Cleveland.
In Week 5 against the Buccaneers, Mariota put up a measly 147 yards and 1 TD in a game that most fans will recall for a terrible RTP call against DT Grady Jarrett.
By this point in the season, one of Mariota’s glaring issues became very apparent - turnovers. Mariota had 6 fumbles [only 2 lost] and 5 interceptions within the first 5 weeks alone: this would be painful foreshadowing for the rest of the season.
In Week 6, Mariota put on a strong yet slightly unusual performance against a weakened 49ers defense: he went 13/14 with 2 passing TDs, 129 passing yards, and 1 rushing TD. It was in this game where Arthur Smith discovered the ingenious tactic of reverting the Falcons offense to the 1940s, by way of running the ball as much as humanly possible. With 39 carries vs just 14 passing attempts, the Falcons cruised to victory, and a 3-3 record.
In Week 7 against the Bengals, the Falcons defense seemingly closed their eyes and pretended that the Bengals weren’t there. Marcus Mariota delivered an impressive 75 yard passing TD to Damiere Byrd, but Smith’s lack of confidence in him was starting to show. I mean, how else do you describe only running 13 pass plays in a game where you are down by 21 points in the 1st quarter?
Mariota faced the Panthers in Week 8, and his stat line was an absolute gem - 20/28, 253 yards, 3 TDs, and 2 INTs — including a god awful interception that would have been game-losing if he were playing any team besides the Panthers. You may remember this game for containing DJ Moore’s exuberant helmet throw, causing the Panthers to miss the game-winning XP and lose in a face-palm fest of an overtime.
By this point, the Falcons had just about reached the halfway mark, and excuses of rust or early season issues for Marcus were starting to falter. The tide of public opinion had started to turn against him, and it was not helped by what he did in his next game.
In Week 9 against the Chargers, Mariota put up a performance completely devoid of any passion - 12/23 with 129 yards. More importantly, this game had one of the worst overthrows you will ever see.
Week 10 saw another match up with the Panthers defense on Thursday night, with a disturbingly pathetic Mariota performance served up on Jeff Bezos’s internet. Although Mariota ended the night with 186 yards and 2 TDs, these stats were padded with garbage time—yes GARBAGE TIME against the 2022 Carolina Panthers—and do not represent even one iota just how bad this Mariota performance was. Instead, I’ll let this next clip speak for itself.
This didn’t actually count as an interception, but I mean, come on dude. Not exactly inspiring confidence here, Marcus.
Speaking of confidence, it was clear that everyone was losing their faith in Marcus. The front office, coaching, fans, and even Marcus himself. On a weekly basis, fans were asking the same question: when is it time for the Mariota experiment to end?
That answer would come during the Falcons’ Week 14 bye, where Arthur Smith announced that Mariota would be stepping away from the team indefinitely. After dropping his last two games against Washington and Pittsburgh with game-losing interceptions, the Falcons had seen more than enough.
All in all, the tale of Mariota seems to be of a man who could never get out of his own head, constantly tripped over his feet, and repeatedly landed in a spectacular face plant in front of the entire NFL world.