Blake Bortles showed significant improvement between his first and second seasons, but he needs to improve even more in 2016 for the Jaguars to be a playoff team.
The Jacksonville Jaguars have long been one of the most unimpressive teams in the NFL. Since making the playoffs as a wild card team in 2007, the team has gone 39-89 and has not posted a single season with a winning record. Though they have attempted to stockpile young assets, their rebuilding project has moved along much slower than initially anticipated.
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However, in 2015 the young team finally was able to show some promise and demonstrated that they might be a playoff team in the near future. In order for the team to experience that type of improvement they need their young signal caller, Blake Bortles, to take the next step to becoming a franchise quarterback.
When the Jaguars took Bortles third overall in the 2014 NFL Draft, it was met with a lot of criticism. Few had projected Bortles to be a top five pick and many thought that he was raw and would need time to develop. The critics proved to be somewhat right after Bortles posted a 58.9 percent completion rate in his rookie season to go along with a poor TD-INT ratio of 11 to 17.
Then, in his second season Bortles started to grow more confident as he got more repetitions. He made huge strides in the passing game, throwing for 4,428 yards and 35 touchdowns while only increasing his interception total by one (18). His pocket presence improved as well. Bortles generally made better decisions and showed that he was making progress. Still, the Jaguars were only able to win five games in his second season and that has to change in 2016.
In the 2016 offseason, the Jaguars made some massive improvements to their team that should make them a potential playoff contender for the first time in almost a decade. They added a lot of talent on defense including Malik Jackson, Prince Amukamara, and rookies Jalen Ramsey and Myles Jack As a result, the stop unit will be massively improved. They will help to improve the overall play of the team and make it so that the offense does not necessarily need to carry the team.
In order for the playoffs to be a reality, Bortles really needs to improve on one area: his accuracy. He has yet to post a completion percentage of over 60 and as mentioned earlier, he has struggled with interceptions during his first two seasons. He needs to learn to throw the ball away when there is no play to be made and he has to make use of his stellar receiving corps.
Allen Robinson is rapidly becoming one of the best receivers in the NFL while Allen Hurns is a top No. 2 receiver in the league. They are both playmakers and they should help Bortles get better as they enter their third year together.
Along with Robinson and Hurns, Bortles will be able to make use of tight end Julius Thomas, second year receiver Rashad Greene, and running backs Chris Ivory and T.J. Yeldon to further improve the play of the offense. If he can target Robinson frequently and spread the remaining targets out to the other receivers, then opposing defenses will have a tough time dealing with the offense.
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The Jaguars need Bortles to take a step forward in 2016. They have so many great offensive weapons that will be able to help him out, and he just needs to be more efficient. If he can cut down on his picks, improve his accuracy, and make use of all of the weapons he has, then the Jaguars could be a playoff contender as soon as this season.