Jacksonville Jaguars: Is Blake Bortles playing well enough for playoff run?
By Larry Brake
Is Blake Bortles playing good enough for a deep playoff run by the Jacksonville Jaguars?
The Jacksonville Jaguars are tied for first place in the AFC South. Jacksonville completed one trade before the deadline passed on Tuesday. But many thought the Jaguars would make a play at obtaining another quarterback.
Evidently the Jaguars must believe Blake Bortles is playing good enough to make a deep playoff run. After seven games, Bortles’ play has been inconsistent. It seems like, the less involved he is in the game, the better the Jaguars play. Is that a fair and true assessment of Bortles’ weekly performances?
A look at Bortles passing attempts paints the picture with colorful results. In winning four games, Bortles attempts per each week are: 21, 31, 14, and 26. In the three losses, he attempted: 34, 35, and 35 passes. His 31 attempts yielded four touchdowns in Week 3 against Baltimore, maybe an outlier of this limited sample of games.
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First, Bortles has 1398 passing yards with nine touchdowns and five interceptions. He has completed 115 passes out of 196 for a 58.7 percent completion rate. However, he is the lowest ranked AFC South quarterback in passing yards per game with 199.7 per NFL.com.
Pro Football Focus (PFF) gives Bortles a grade of 78.1 for the season per their latest update on quarterbacks. PFF ranks Bortles in the middle third of NFL quarterbacks at 21st. PFF ranks the other AFC South quarterbacks at Nos. 8 (83), 23 (75.3), and 24 (75.1).
Football Outsiders (FO) ranks quarterbacks in three designations: DYAR, DVOA, and QBR. FO ranks Bortles at 20, 19, and 19, respectively. FO explains the parameters of the QBR rating:
"Total QBR (listed as just QBR) is a metric created by the ESPN Stats & Information group. Total QBR is based on the by the quarterback on each play, then adjusts the numbers to a scale of 0-100."
Per ESPN:
"The Total Quarterback Rating is a statistical measure that incorporates the contexts and details of those throws and what they mean for wins. It’s built from the team level down to the quarterback, where we understand first what each play means to the team, then give credit to the quarterback for what happened on that play based on what he contributed."
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With all the above statistics and analysis, is Bortles playing good enough for a deep Jaguars playoff run? Jacksonville’s decision to stick with Bortles speaks huge volumes. After the next nine games, everyone will know if the Jaguars made the right decision.