Jacksonville Jaguars: Blake Bortles on the road to redemption
By Larry Brake
Blake Bortles has had a rocky career as the Jacksonville Jaguars man under center. After regressing last season, the quarterback is on the road to redemption.
The Jacksonville Jaguars drafted and projected Blake Bortles to be the face of the franchise in 2014. Jacksonville selected Bortles as the third overall selection ahead of several popular quarterback candidates. The Jaguars chose him over Johnny Manziel, Teddy Bridgewater, Derek Carr and Jimmy Garoppolo.
Manziel is looking to make a comeback via the CFL. Bridgewater has been inactive for the past fourteen months due to an injury. Just recently, Garoppolo was traded to San Fransisco. Carr is the one that many Jaguars fans wished was wearing the black and teal. He clearly outplayed Bortles in Jacksonville last year. Bortles’ confidence continued to sink with each game.
Bortles became known as the king of garbage time stats. Could it be true that Bortles played better without a chance to win the game? Suddenly, Jacksonville made the decision to fire the head coach.
Everyone thought that Bortles would not be the starting quarterback in 2017. Surely the Jaguars would make a move after his poor preseason game performances. Moving away from Bortles, appeared to be the right decision that the Jaguars must do. But they didn’t.
In February, the Jaguars told Bortles to reduce the turnovers if he wanted to continue as the team’s signal caller. Conventional thought figured the new head coach would draft or sign Bortles’ replacement. Doug Marrone stayed firm concerning the status of Bortles.
What did the new coaching direction see in Bortles that fans were missing? How could Jacksonville be so stubborn to prove their point? The Jaguars reaffirmed their faith in Bortles and declared him the starting quarterback.
Thus far this season, he’s rewarded them for the most part. Bortles is making better decisions. He has decided that throwing the football away is a good, smart decision. Bortles has thrown fewer interceptions through eight games. He threw 10 picks after eight games last season, but has only thrown five this season.
Bortles also looks more comfortable in the pocket. The Jaguars offensive line is playing better than anyone has imagined. When flushed from the pocket, he runs downfield or throws the ball away. He is learning to consistently move the chains.
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Perhaps most importantly, Bortles is throwing downfield with accuracy. According to NFL.com’s NextGen Stats, Bortles quarterback rating is extremely high when throwing over 20 yards between the hash marks. In fact, of the twelve possible zones, Bortles’ rates above the NFL average in four zones and below in only two.
Bortles can win the fans back if he continues his current level of play. He can start by leading Jacksonville into the playoffs. Consider him on the road to redemption due to his improved play this season.