Getty No NFL quarterback receives as much criticism as Blake Bortles.
The name Blake Bortles has become synonymous with memes, and the Jaguars quarterback has commonly been a punching bag for football fans. There is even a parody Bortles Twitter account, Blake Bortles Facts, that tweets out funny stats like this one. “Blake and Tom [Brady] have combined for 5 championships,” says one tweet that you can now purchase on a shirt. Just for fun, let’s try a little blind resume test.
The first quarterback completed 60.2 percent of his passes while throwing for 3,687 yards, 21 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. The second quarterback completed 63.8 percent of his passes while throwing for 3,504 yards, 19 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
Bortles is behind door number one, while Jameis Winston is behind door number two. The two players had similar statistical 2017 seasons (although Bortles rushed for about 200 more yards than Winston), yet Winston is widely regarded as a franchise quarterback.
To be fair, Bortles has his flaws, and as an NFL quarterback he has struggled with consistency and turnovers just as a starting place for what has gone wrong. The big difference in the quarterbacks mentioned above is Bortles’ mistakes become memes, while Winston’s deficiencies are chalked up to youth, minus that weird motivational speech where Winston oddly pretended to eat his fingers.
Let’s examine the full story behind Bortles’ NFL career.
Bortles Has Had 3 Offensive Coordinators in 4 Seasons
Do the names Jedd Fisch, Greg Olson and Nathaniel Hackett sound familiar? These are the three offensive coordinators Bortles has had in just four NFL seasons. Hackett was made the interim offensive coordinator in the middle of the 2016 season, and given the position permanently after the season. This off-season marked the first time in Bortles NFL career that he did not have to prepare for a new offensive coordinator with a new playbook.
Heading into college, Bortles was recruited by most schools to play tight end, and did not have the benefit of being groomed as a top high school quarterback prospect in Elite 11 camps like many other young NFL signal callers had. After drafting Bortles with the No. 3 pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, the Jaguars planned to sit Bortles for his entire rookie season.
Here’s what former Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley told NFL Network a few weeks after Bortles was drafted.
We really felt comfortable with [Chad Henne] coming back with another year in the system. I think it gave us flexibility. When Blake was there available for us, we really wanted to capture that opportunity.
And we do feel good about where Blake’s at, but we feel like this time that he has under Chad, a year to develop, will be really good in the end result.
The Henne era lasted two weeks, as the Jaguars pulled the veteran quarterback in Week 3 and handed the offense to Bortles. Gone was the year of development for a quarterback who had a meteoric rise his junior season at UCF. Bortles entered the league with all the physical and athletic tools needed to be a successful NFL player, but was also rough around the edges.
Consider the story of three of the current top NFL quarterbacks: Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees. Brady, Rodgers and Brees all sat behind a veteran quarterback for at least one season. We’ve also seen quarterbacks like Alex Smith go from being almost out of the league, to leading a team into the playoffs.
This is not the current state of the NFL, as any quarterback drafted within the first two rounds is expected to play right away. We have to wonder if many bad franchises who cycle through quarterbacks are setting up the players for failure from the start thanks to their lack of patience.
Ultimately, Bortles’ play will decide if he has a long-term future in this league, but fans who make a decision about Bortles’ play based on a three-second viral video are being short sided. According to FanSided, Bortles was sacked 140 times his first three seasons, and led the league in sacks in two of those three seasons. Despite having the deck stacked against him, Bortles has shown flashes of potential during his four seasons in Jacksonville. Enough for the Jaguars to pick up his contract option for a fifth season.
Bortles had his best statistical season in 2015, throwing for 4,428 yards, 35 touchdowns and 18 interceptions. Bortles’ play regressed in his third season, as the Jaguars continued to be one of the worst teams in football. Bortles later admitted to playing through a separated shoulder and tendinitis during the second half of the 2016 season. Just when it looked like Bortles was going to be benched, he won the starting quarterback position in the final hour for the 2017 season.
Blake Bortles: Change We Can Believe In
During 2017, Bortles was able to take advantage of an off-season full of changes in Jacksonville to help lead the Jaguars in the most important statistical category- wins. Tom Coughlin was brought back to Jacksonville in a front-office role, and helped establish a new culture. The Jaguars started by drafting a workhorse running back in Leonard Fournette. Jacksonville also brought in three key veteran defensive playmakers Calais Campbell, A.J. Bouye and Barry Church.
A funny thing began to happen this season, Bortles helped the Jaguars win games thanks to a more balanced offensive attack, and a defense that became one of the best units in the NFL. Bortles 2017 numbers (3,687 passing yards and 21 touchdowns) are not eye-popping, but he completed over 60 percent of his passes for the first time in his career while throwing a career-low number of interceptions. While 13 interceptions is still too high, it is a step in the right direction for a quarterback who has struggled with turnovers.
Bortles helped lead the Jaguars to two playoff victories despite his top three receiving options being an often-injured Marqise Lee along with rookies Keelan Cole and Dede Westbrook. The Jaguars lost Allen Robinson for the season, while Allen Hurns has disappeared. For all his passing deficiencies, Bortles’ ability to run continues to help the Jaguars in key situations. According to CBS, Bortles 6.3 rushing yards per carry is fourth all-time for a quarterback behind the likes of Michael Vick and Randall Cunningham.
Watching how Bortles played last season and at the beginning of 2017, it was clear the quarterback’s confidence was as much of the issue as his decision making. Bortles’ stats as of late may do little to move the needle, but the Jaguars quarterback is playing with much more confidence in his own ability.
Jacksonville would be wise to consider drafting a quarterback early in 2018 as Bortles has not shown enough to demand a long-term commitment. However, Bortles has shown enough flashes that he deserves the opportunity to compete for the job again in 2018, and for the first time in his career he will have the same offensive coordinator for two consecutive seasons.
Bortles may not get the benefit of the doubt from most fans, but he is one game away from playing in the biggest game in sports. Bortles might be better than you think, just ask @BortlesFacts.