Blake Bortles on the precipice of becoming a top player
By Daniel Lago
The Jaguars have one of the fastest rising players in the NFL in Blake Bortles, but some people are taking their time to buy in.
As we inch towards the beginning of the regular season, we’ll have less and less “fluff” pieces on players and where they stand among their peers according to national analysts. For now however we’ll trudge forward and discuss another player ranking list – ESPN’s #NFLRank. Allen Robinson was the only Jaguars player to make the list, meaning guys like Malik Jackson and Blake Bortles missed the cut.
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While opinions are wildly divided on Blake Bortles, one analyst who has seemingly struggled to cement his stance on the young QB is ESPN’s Bill Barnwell. the analytics-driven Barnwell has been down on Bortles in general over two years, so I had to do a double take when he listed Bortles as
one of his top players most likely to make ESPN’s #NFLRank
top 100 list in 2017:
"Blake Bortles, QB, Jaguars (221)I wrote about Bortles two weeks ago, and while I found that he hadn’t made quite as much of an improvement as his numbers suggested, it would be impossible to argue Bortles isn’t heading in the right direction. With a young offensive core surrounded by a defense which seems incredibly likely to improve, the Jaguars should be better in 2016. Bortles will drive some of that success and rightfully take credit as the Jaguars push toward — or even past — .500."
The first interesting tidbit to discuss is Bortles actual ranking on the list – 221. That seems awfully low.
We don’t know what QBs were ranked ahead of Bortles, but it’s probably safe to say he was ranked in the 20s given how ESPN has talked about him this offseason in other pieces.
Barnwell also talks about the piece he wrote recently analyzing Bortles’ progress in 2015, the one where he essentially gave all the credit for Bortles’ improvement to Allen Robinson. While he’s trying to be diplomatic, it’s clear Barnwell favors Derek Carr and Teddy Bridgewater given their presumed superior abilites to read defenses.
That’s why it’s so surprising to see Barnwell list Bortles in this article. Perhaps it’s more of his projection of who will make the list, not who he thinks should. Either way, it’s interesting to see someone like Barnwell begrudgingly give the third year quarterback a nod.