Blake Bortles nears 4000 yards, franchise record in reach

Blake Bortles is just 179 yards away from 4000 yards in the 2015 season, becoming the first Jacksonville Jaguars QB to reach that mark since 1996.

It may have taken almost 20 years for another Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback to even sniff 4000 yards, but Blake Bortles is poised to get past that mark.

With just 179 more yards and at the helm of a vaunted passing attack, Bortles is almost certainly going to move past 4000 and get closer to the 4367 yard that Mark Brunell put up in 1996. Brunell never again reached 4000 yards and successors Byron Leftwich, David Garrard, Blaine Gabbert, and Chad Henne never came much closer.

Bortles could be the first, in another franchise-record breaking season.

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It may take a Herculean effort for Bortles and his talented receivers to get to the 4367 that Brunell posted with just two games remaining, but setting a franchise record for passing yards is definitely

possible

. Bortles would only need to get 546 more yards. That’s just 273 yards per game, which he has accomplished in 10 of his 28 games in his career.

For fans of the Jaguars who have suffered through the Blaine Gabbert era, this more powerful, successful, and explosive Blake Bortles unit has been a welcome change. It has become one of the better passing attacks in the NFL and promises to continue to be so over the coming years.

Personally, I hope that Bortles sets the franchise record. It would be another success for an offensive brain trust headed by offensive coordinator Greg Olson, who has struggled in many of his stints around the NFL. It would finally prove that head coach Gus Bradley is capable to assembling a competent team around him to make up for his own deficiencies.

(hopefully that will translate to the defense in the future as well…)

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Let’s keep our fingers crossed and see if Blake Bortles can get there. Hopefully we’ll see him finally bring the franchise back to passing glory. He’s already broken the franchise’s passing touchdowns record, now let’s knock down the next one.