One of the teams that hasn’t been discussed at all as a potential landing for soon-to-be former Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota is the Washington Redskins.
In an article making bold predictions for some of the more intriguing free agents this offseason, CBS Sports’ John Breech has Mariota signing with the team that holds the No. 2 overall pick in this year’s draft.
If Ron Rivera has made one thing clear during his first two months as coach of the Redskins, it’s that he’s not completely sold on Dwayne Haskins as his quarterback. Not only has Rivera been non-committal about making Haskins his starter for 2020, but he’s even mentioned the possibility of bringing in competition. Although it seems highly unlikely that the Redskins would draft a quarterback in the first round for the second consecutive year — and I don’t think owner Dan Snyder would let them due to his close ties to Haskins — it wouldn’t be surprising at all to see Rivera bring in a veteran, which is where Mariota comes in.
Breech believes that Mariota could challenge second-year quarterback Dwayne Haskins for the starting job in training camp, which is the type of situation the former No. 2 overall pick should be targeting in free agency.
While it’s true Haskins’ future is a bit cloudy at the moment with a new regime in Washington, the Ohio State product did make significant strides towards the end of last season and his stock is certainly going up.
Still, it wouldn’t hurt for the Redskins to bring in another quarterback to push him, and if that veteran quarterback was unable to win the starting job, he could help in the development of Haskins.
Mariota will have multiple suitors for his services this offseason, but I’m not sure a scenario in which he has to unseat a potential franchise quarterback that was drafted in the first round last year is the best fit.
Adding to that, there aren’t exactly a lot of pieces in Washington to surround Mariota with that would put him in the best position to succeed. There will likely be better options out there.