2015 NFL Power Rankings – Jaguars Snubbed Again

2015 NFL Power Rankings are out early following the 2015 NFL Draft and while it is always good to get a gauge of national media coverage on the Jacksonville Jaguars, it is often pretty apparent that they have an anti-Jacksonville bias.

We’ve highlighted this bias in the 2015 NFL Power Rankings that came out shortly after free agency that saw the Jaguars land at 32nd overall and we’ll continue by looking at the power rankings from Fox Sports again.

Once again, we see that the Jaguars are in last place, with the caption:

"The Jaguars added several skill position players and offensive linemen throughout the offseason process. They also managed to find Gus Bradley a new toy on defense at No. 3 overall in Dante Fowler. This won’t be enough to turn everything around with Blake Bortles at the helm."

What I am struggling with in this assessment isn’t the draft coverage, which is pretty solid for the all of two sentences they use, but the mention of not being able to turn it around with Blake Bortles at the helm.

In the NFL, we’ve become so accustomed to young quarterbacks coming in and succeeding from day one that when they don’t we write them off. Sometimes rightly, sometimes wrongly. In the case of Blake Bortles, I think that writing him off here is too premature. It is apparent that Blake Bortles flashed in his rookie season with the team and he found some moderate success (emphasis on the moderate) while taking his lumps. Not too long ago, that was fine for a rookie quarterback. Now, it isn’t.

Bortles is young, he’s raw, but he’s learning and getting ready to play. To criticize this early is to completely disregard the hard work that so many other great quarterbacks put in to succeed following years that they were not stellar in.

It’s too early to give up on Bortles and for the offseason the Jaguars have had, it’s a shame to see them thrown into 32nd overall yet again. Don’t expect the power rankings to change too much as we get nearer the season. Good thing they don’t matter too much in the grand scheme of things!

Next: Is James Sample the Answer at Free Safety?

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