NFL Preseason 2018: Winners and losers from Week 3

ARLINGTON, TX - AUGUST 26: Mike White #3 of the Dallas Cowboys fumbles the ball after being sacked by Vontarrius Dora #59 of the Arizona Cardinals in the fourth quarter of a preseason football game at AT&T Stadium on August 26, 2018 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images) /

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JACKSONVILLE, FL – AUGUST 25: Blake Bortles #5 of the Jacksonville Jaguars attempts a pass during a preseason game against the Atlanta Falcons at TIAA Bank Field on August 25, 2018 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images) /

Loser: Blake Bortles

After becoming one of the hottest teams and biggest surprises of last year, the Jacksonville Jaguars weren’t terribly active in the 2018 offseason. The moves that they did make in free agency, however, clearly had the goal of making the offense more potent in mind. Jacksonville signed guard Andrew Norwell to a lucrative contract to shore up their offensive line, and also gave the passing game a new weapon with the addition of tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins.

Unfortunately, for the offense in Jacksonville to take a step forward, they’re going to need Blake Bortles to either be as solid as he was last year or potentially even better. Given what we’ve seen from the much-maligned quarterback thus far and especially in Week 3 of the preseason, that might be a lot to ask from him.

Despite the fact that the Jaguars were victorious over the Atlanta Falcons in their matchup this week, Bortles was downright awful and caused what could’ve been a blowout to be a relatively close game. The fifth-year signal-caller not only threw two ugly interceptions, but had a couple of other awful throws, including another that could’ve been picked off had his intended target not knocked it out of the air to prevent just that.

Bortles has long been the issue with the Jaguars and, in the minds of most, what’s holding this team back. While the hope is that they can just take the ball out of his hands enough to still win, if he keeps turning the ball over like this, they could have a ceiling as a team.

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