Most football players recovering from injuries feel fine this time of year -- three months before any sort of live contact situation. Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota, who broke his leg at the end of the 2016 season and underwent surgery at the end of December, is no exception.
"I feel great," Mariota told WGFX-FM in Nashville on Thursday. "Overall, we're in a good spot. I'm probably another week or two from really full-head running, but I'm starting to do some jogging and more things on my end, which is a positive movement. Again, they think I'm ahead of schedule. For me, I'm going to continue to take it one day at a time and do my best to get ready."
Like Raiders quarterback Derek Carr, who suffered a similar injury at almost the same exact time, the minutiae of spring recovery is meaningless. The fact that Mariota is not jogging full-steam right now will mean nothing if he shows up to training camp with his ability to navigate the pocket complete intact.
For younger players suffering one of their first severe injuries, ignoring the rehab checkpoints can be difficult. Especially for someone like Mariota, who is vital to the success of Tennessee's next-gen offense, which relies partially on the fear caused by Mariota's legs.
In the meantime, he can happily rest knowing the Titans loaded up on pass catchers in the draft. General manager Jon Robinson selected Corey Davis with the No. 5 overall pick, Taywan Taylor at No. 72 and Jonnu Smith at No. 100.
"Yeah I was very excited," Mariota said. "It's gonna be fun to be able to play with those guys. They gotta come in and work right away. But I think we have a good core group of veteran guys to help these guys out, and hopefully they'll make an impact for us."
Anything that lightens the load of a franchise quarterback in recovery is a good thing.
