Does Ken Whisenhunt Seriously Need To Sell His Players on Marcus Mariota?

The Tennessee Titans did what they were supposed to do with their No.2 overall pick. They took a quarterback who they felt could be the face of the franchise for the next 10 t0 15 years in Marcus Mariota.

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets /

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Whisenhunt actually hinted that if Mariota was sitting there at the No.2 pick, the Titans would take him and have no problem starting him.

Common sense says that you grab Mariota for, if nothing else, the sake of creating competition at the quarterback position between Mariota and Zach Mettenberger.

Mettenberger finished the 2014 season completing 59% of his passes for 1,412 yards, eight touchdowns and seven interceptions in six starts.

That was enough reason for the Tennessee Titans to want to bring in another guy. But it was not enough for the players on the squad to want to try someone else at quarterback–or so it might appear.

Observe the reaction of Titans wide receivers Justin Hunter and Kendall Wright after the selection of Marcus Mariota was announced by commissioner Roger Goodell:

It appears that Wright and Hunter were not to fond of the pick. They might actually have been fond of Mettenberger and did not want to see his opportunity in jeopardy.

In fact, according to a tweet from Jim Wyatt who is a beat writer for the Tennessean, he is not at all surprised by the reaction.

I'm hardly surprised by reaction. Wright & Hunter friends w Zach Mettenberger & they've freely admitted it. They've never met Marcus Mariota
— Jim Wyatt (@jwyattsports) May 7, 2015

He also tweeted about the dynamic in the Tennessee Titans locker room.

Guys in an NFL locker room have each other's backs. Guys like Mettenberger. They'll learn to like Mariota, too #Titans
— Jim Wyatt (@jwyattsports) May 7, 2015

All that needs to happen is for Marcus Mariota to hit the practice field and take care of business.

Ken Whisenhunt must feel that Mariota is a guy that he can groom into the kind of leader under center that the team needs or the organization would not have made the pick.

The fact of the matter is that the reaction to the draft pick is about young players liking a particular guy as compared to someone they have not yet met.

Also, there is really no denying that the receivers have practiced and built some chemistry with Mettenberger. Now they are going to watch him go to the bench. No one wants to see anyone that they’ve worked with lose playing time, because it also means that it could happen to them.

With Dorial Green-Beckham coming into the fold for the Titans, there might need to be a little concern for Justin Hunter and Kendall Wright as it pertains to their playing time and production.

Especially when you look at the numbers that Justin Hunter put up in 2014. Hunter finished with 28 catches for 498 yards and three touchdowns.

He is underperforming ,yet at the same time, he is only as good as the person who is throwing the ball to him.

So Hunter would like to embrace Marcus Mariota and hope that he is able to catch on to what Ken Whisenhunt is trying to teach him quickly.

A good quarterback can make receivers look better than they really are and can get you majorly paid.

So in the end, there is no sell job for Ken Whisenhunt when it comes to convincing the team that Marcus Mariota is the right guy.