Eagles Fans Have Already Seen Enough of Marcus Mariota

For Eagles fans and Browns fans, Week 2 of the preseason brought more of the same when their teams fought to an 18-18 tie on Thursday night at Lincoln Financial Field. For Cleveland, it was the familiar experience of watching Cade York shank yet another field goal, this time with the game on the line. For Philly, it was another dud from backup QB Marcus Mariota, who is quickly proving that he is not worthy of being next in line behind Jalen Hurts.

For the second week in a row, Mariota was pretty brutal. He started the game and played the entire first half, finishing 9-of-17 for 85 yards, no touchdowns and an interception. Even worse, several of his throws were severely off-target, drawing plenty of criticism on Twitter.

Meanwhile, many Eagles fans have already seen more than enough and are ready to move on from Mariota after just two preseason games.

Marcus Mariota Eagles Preseason

Mariota has never been a great passer, so his latest struggles are nothing new. He owns a career completion rate of 62.6 percent and has a TD/INT ratio below 2/1.

The former Heisman winner has gotten progressively worse over the past year, however, dating back to last season with the Falcons. He got off to a solid start but fell apart midway through the season, causing Atlanta to bench him and replace him with rookie QB Desmond Ridder in Week 15.

Unfortunately for the Falcons, it was too late to save their season, as they finished one game behind the Buccaneers in the NFC South. Perhaps if they had benched Mariota sooner, that wouldn’t have been the case.

While Mariota is unlikely to play much for the Eagles this year, it’s still important to have a quality backup. That’s especially true when you have a run-heavy QB like Hurts who puts his body on the line and takes a lot of hits.

Philadelphia also understands how valuable a good backup can be. The Eagles were fortunate to have Nick Foles on the roster when Carson Wentz went down in 2017, as Foles stepped up in his absence and ended up leading Philly all the way to a Super Bowl championship.

The Eagles might have a guy like that now, but it’s not Mariota. That would be rookie Tanner McKee, a sixth-round draft pick out of Stanford. McKee came in after Mariota exited on Thursday and immediately flourished, going 10-for-18 for 147 yards and a touchdown. That’s more like it.

Mariota may get one more chance to prove himself (if he’s lucky) during Philly’s final preseason game against the Colts on Aug. 24. But if he has another underwhelming performance or if McKee outplays him, he may be out of a job. At the very least, he’ll be relegated to QB3 on the depth chart.

If the Eagles want to win the NFC again, they need to make sure they have a good insurance policy in place for Hurts. Mariota isn’t it, but McKee might be.