Blake Bortles Has Every Opportunity to Start

Since drafting him with the 3rd overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, the Jacksonville Jaguars have been consistent with their plan for quarterback Blake Bortles – let the young signal caller sit until he’s ready. To be safe, general manager David Caldwell said they hope for Bortles to sit all of the 2014 season, but that never really seemed like the most probable outcome.

The general belief among the local and national media was Bortles would come in at some point in 2014 and take over for veteran Chad Henne. With Bortles performing exceptionally well in his first 2 preseason games, and the plan to have him take first team reps in practice and in the 3rd preseason game, that timeline for him to start is inching closer to the first week of the regular season.

In his MMQB piece over at SI.com, Peter King had an interesting quote from offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch about Bortles.

"We never thought when we drafted [Bortles] we were taking him to play now. But nothing is set in stone. We’re giving Blake every chance to make the decision super-hard for us.– Jedd Fisch"

It’s hard to be around the Jaguars and not think they’re going to be a good team in 2015. – Peter King

The coaching staff deciding to give Bortles first team reps is exactly that – giving him every chance to change their minds and start him now. Blake did his part in the first 2 preseason games by being accurate, decisive, and poised beyond anyone’s expectations. The team had to give him live snaps with the starting offense after the way he performed.

King talks about the team being good in 2015, but there’s a good chance the Jaguars are going to outperform a lot of expectations in 2014 as well if Bortles takes over sooner rather than later.

– Daniel Lago