Jacksonville Jaguars: Which Blake Bortles will show up vs. Bills
By Larry Brake
The Jacksonville Jaguars host the Buffalo Bills on Wild Card Sunday. Wonder which Blake Bortles will show up?
The Jacksonville Jaguars fans have plenty of reasons to celebrate the 2017 season. The Jaguars won the AFC South division and are the third seed in the playoffs. Most of all, Blake Bortles played well and gained some redemption from his past seasons’ mistakes. Or has he?
Remember, most Jaguars fans wanted the team to move away from Bortles after last season. However, Jacksonville picked up his contract option for a fifth year. The team put its faith firmly in Bortles.
As a result, the Jaguars decide to carry only two quarterbacks on the roster. Third-stringer Brandon Allen was released before Week 1. Ryan Nassib was signed and released after spending a few weeks on the practice squad.
Jacksonville had burnt the bridges which allowed any escape from Bortles. Rather than play Chad Henne, the Jaguars were prepared to ride the Bortles express to wherever it took them. The gamble has paid off, sort of.
In Week 1, Bortles played well especially after losing Allen Robinson on his first pass completion. Due to all the injuries within the receiving corps, Bortles developed chemistry with younger receivers. He got the ball deep at critical times.
Bortles threw more to the tight ends throughout the season. Marcedes Lewis became a weapon against Baltimore in London. Last week, James O’Shaugnessey caught five passes on six targets with a touchdown.
What’s more, Bortles ran for good yardage instead of forcing the ball into tight coverage. He finished 2017 as the third leading rusher for Jacksonville. He ran for 322 yards and two touchdowns with an average of 5.6 yards per carry.
On the negative side of things, though, Bortles had his worst performance of the season in Tennessee. Pro Football Focus (PFF) described his performance:
"Bortles was miserable when pressured against the Titans in Week 17. He faced pressure on 12 of 36 dropbacks … He also struggled to connect on anything past the line of scrimmage, going just 9-of-28 for 98 yards and two interceptions on balls that traveled past the line of scrimmage in the air…"
Next Gen Stats on NFL.com reveals Bortles 2017 season passing chart. Of the twelve possible throwing zones, he ranks better than the NFL average in only three categories. Anything to his left is within the NFL average or below.
Next: 2018 NFL Playoffs: Picks, predictions for Wild Card Round
Most noteworthy is that through Week 15, Bortles had only thrown eight interceptions. In the last two weeks, he has thrown five interceptions. He is definitely not trending in a positive direction.
Finally, the question to be answered is, which Bortles shows up on Sunday? Hopefully it is the weeks 13-15 version of Bortles. If it is the version of the past two weeks, then Jacksonville will have an early exit from the playoffs.