Jacksonville Jaguars Bye Week Report Card: Quarterback

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The Jacksonville Jaguars enter the bye week at 2-5, a stark contrast from where they’ve been 7 games into recent seasons. While 2-5 would be a discouraging record for most teams, it signals improvement for a team that only won 7 games in the last 2 seasons, and it’s somehow good enough to stay in the hunt in a downright horrific AFC South.

As we slow things down for the bye week, we can take some time to look back and grade out each position group to help piece together how the Jaguars got to this point.

Let’s start with the most important position on the team – quarterback.

Here are Blake Bortles‘ statistics after 7 games:

Stats:

QBR: 61.4 (11th in the NFL)
Passer rating: 82.5 (25th in the NFL)
151/271, 55.7% completion
1,812 yards passing
6.69 yards per attempt
15 touchdowns, 8 interceptions

At the end of his rookie season, Blake Bortles’ 25.2 QBR was the worst in the league by a considerable margin. At face value, Bortles’ improvement in that metric is monumental and borderline historic. In literally every aspect of the game, Bortles has made strides from last year and it’s showing up in his production. Even with the occasional terrible decision and missing open receivers, Bortles still ranks 2nd in touchdown passes with 15. His completion percentage leaves much to be desired, but it’s balanced out by his willingness and ability to push the ball down the field.

Is Bortles one of the 11 best quarterbacks in the league, as intimated by the QBR stat? Probably not, but he has played like a functional quarterback in the first 7 games, more so than many of the league’s “staple” quarterbacks like Andrew Luck, Joe Flacco, Matthew Stafford, Peyton Manning, and Alex Smith.

Bortles has plenty of room to improve, but he’s certainly been one of the bright spots on the Jaguars’ roster through the first half of the 2015 season.

Bye Week Grade: Quarterback Blake Bortles – B-minus

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