The Buccaneers and Titans open the NFL regular season against each other Sunday in Tampa, and many eyes will be on the teams' two high-profile rookie QBs. The Bucs' Jameis Winston and Titans' Marcus Mariota were the first two picks in the '15 Draft, and both are slated to start the season under center for their respective teams. It is clear that the two franchises and the league have been activating around the young stars as the season nears.
SHOPPING SPREE: After being drafted, Mariota and Winston immediately shot to the top of the jersey sales rankings at NFLShop.com, finishing ranked first and second overall, respectively, for the month of May. Sales fell off a bit in June, but both remained in the Top 10 for the month, with Mariota's No. 8 Titans jersey ranked second and Winston's No. 3 Buccaneers jersey ranked eighth. The NFLShop.com landing page for several days around the beginning of September featured images of Mariota's No. 8 and Winston's No. 3 with the copy, "New Season. New Faces. New Gear." Winston's and Mariota's jerseys are the first ones that come up when users click on the team-specific links to shop for jerseys, and they appear under the Titans' and Bucs' "Top Sellers" lists on the site.
ON A SCALE FROM 1-10: Local TV ratings for the Titans' four preseason games dropped slightly from a season ago, dipping from a '14 average of 15.64 to 15.29 in '15 on Nashville-based WKRN-ABC. Though Mariota’s preseason snaps were expected to peak for the team’s third preseason game, the Friday night game against the Chiefs drew the lowest rating of the preseason. A nationally televised contest against the Rams on Fox the previous Sunday night drew the team’s highest preseason rating at 18.79, just short of the previous season’s 18.80 mark in the Saturday night preseason opener against the Packers. The Buccaneers have seen a solid bump in local TV ratings for their preseason, averaging an 11.5 for the four games. That is up 28% from a 9.0 for last year's preseason. The highest rating was a 14.3 for the Aug. 24 game against the Bengals, which was simulcast on ESPN and WMOR-Ind. All other preseason games in '14 and '15 aired locally on WFLA-NBC.
COMING IN FIRST: As of last night, tickets across the secondary market for Sunday's Titans-Bucs opener were averaging $101, up from $79 at the comparable point last year for the Buccaneers home opener. SeatGeek Content Analyst Chris Leyden said given the presence of the two Heisman Trophy-winning QBs, it is "no surprise that the buzz and demand around this game is higher than last year's Bucs home opener." StubHub reported that on April 30, the first day of the '15 Draft, Buccaneers searches on the ticket seller's site saw a 158% year-over-year increase compared to the first day of the '14 Draft. That was the highest increase for any team in the league, while the Titans came in second with a 106% increase in searches.
UNDER SIEGE: The two players' specific effects on team business metrics were
difficult to obtain, as the Buccaneers declined to comment and the
Titans did not respond to requests. However, during the preseason, Mariota was depicted prominently on the Titans' official web page without his helmet on a wallpaper touting season-ticket sales. On the Buccaneers' site, Winston is featured as one of four players on a wallpaper promoting tickets for the Sept. 13 season opener against the Titans with the copy, "Siege The Day." Earlier this week, one of the rotating images on the Buccaneers' home page showed Winston and Mariota with the similar slogan, "Siege The Debut."
