AP

The Titans drafted Marcus Mariota with the second overall pick and it is generally a pretty good sign that you think a quarterback is better than anyone you have on hand when you make that kind of decision.

In the case of Tennessee, that means they’re casting a vote for Mariota over a future with Zach Mettenberger running the offense. Titans players like tackle Taylor Lewan said they thought Mettenberger would put up a good fight for the job and Mettenberger sent the same message to Adam Caplan of ESPN in terms that set up the quarterback competition as a sequel to 300.

“I don’t [know] what the mind-set is, but at the end of the day I can just control what I do and I’m extremely confident in myself, almost to a fault,” Mettenberger said. “But people who know me know I’m not going down without a fight to the death.”

Mettenberger sports a beard that would make him fit into the film and he may suffer a similar fate to the one the outnumbered Spartans encountered at Thermopylae. They were outnumbered by the Persian army and Mettenberger will be outnumbered if the Titans staff and front office want to give the job to Mariota right out of the gate.

Mettenberger may know that since he said the biggest thing he learned as a rookie was “the business and politics of this game,” but that doesn’t appear to be stopping him from trying to offer the best possible case for a delayed start to Mariota’s career as a starter.