Blake Bortles by far the biggest question mark moving forward for the Jacksonville Jaguars

While there are numerous things to be fixed top to bottom with the franchise, the Jacksonville Jaguars need to prioritize what to do with Blake Bortles.

With a 2-7 record and a looming trip to Detroit to face the Lions, the Jacksonville Jaguars are wallowing in uncertainty and negativitiy. They have no hope for the playoffs midway through the 2016 regular season despite an offseason full of optimistic narratives and somewhat deserved hype. So what went wrong?

A lot.

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But one topic currently at the forefront (and will stay there) is the play of third year quarterback Blake Bortles. After setting franchise records for touchdowns and passing yards in 2015 while reinvigorating the fanbase with his ability to generate huge plays down the field, Bortles has looked uncertain, sloppy, and downright awful at times in 2016. Between his mechanics and decision making, there’s more than enough for his critics to point to as reasons to cease believing in his potential.

Chris Wesseling over at Around the NFL pinned Bortles as the number one franchise “question mark” as we barrel through the rest of the 2016 regular season.

"Can the franchise savior be salvaged? Plagued by an awkward, hitch-filled throwing motion that would make even Tim Tebow blush, Bortles is a broken player as of the midpoint in his third NFL season. It’s not unusual for quarterbacks with injured arms or flawed mechanics to pad their stats on the losing end of blowouts, finally afforded time to scan lax defenses for open passing windows in garbage time. This is the state of Jacksonville’s offense: a dysfunctional, chaotic mess incapable of moving the chains while the game remains competitive.“I don’t know where it came from or why,” Bortles acknowledged to CBS analyst Phil Simms in Week 8, “but my motion’s getting longer.”This is an issue that goes back to Bortles’ rookie-year struggles. With the aid of sports biomechanics guru Tom House, he fixed the problem in the offseason of 2015, only to backslide late this summer. On the hot seat or not, Bradley can’t continue to play a quarterback with obvious physical and mental hang-ups. Tasked with mastering complex game plans each week, the 56th-ranked player on the “Top 100 Players Of 2016” list simply doesn’t have the luxury of concentrating on his delivery to the extent it would take to fix it right now. Can a return trip to House provide a solution during the offseason? If so, how long will it stick this time? A few months? The entire 2017 season? A few years? The rest of Bortles’ career? It’s a franchise-altering conundrum for the Jaguars’ front office."

This is a common sentiment among national analysts. Cameron DaSilva over at FOX Sports listed Bortles at number 5 in his list of biggest underachievers for 2016:

"Bortles had the best season of his young career in 2015, throwing for 4,428 yards, 35 touchdowns and 18 interceptions. He’s followed that up with hideous mechanics, terrible decision-making and poor ball placement. This season, Bortles has 2,421 passing yards, 16 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. Those numbers don’t seem all that bad until you take into consideration that most of his yards have come in garbage time with the Jaguars trailing in the second half.He was expected to take a huge step forward in his third NFL season, improving upon his relatively good 2015 performance. He’s actually regressed mechanically and statistically, which has to be concerning for the Jaguars. He’s not their only problem, but they may need to look at other options in a year or two."

Both Wesseling and Silva are right – Blake Bortles has been an unquestioned disappointment this year and his future is in serious doubt. If Bortles had simply just not progressed and was playing at the level he did in 2015, there would be some worry but he would still have numerous believers. His overall regression has left him on an island where the few people who still think he can be the franchise savior reside in the front office of Everbank Field.

I haven’t decided my stance on Bortles just yet – I want to give him the rest of the season to see how responds to adversity and what approach he takes to this offseason. I’m absolutely worried about his play and the disaster his retention could spell for the 2017 season, but I also don’t want to throw out the baby with the bath water (the bath water being the historically bad coaching staff).

I took some solace from a terrific tidbit by reddit user u/Singitonetwof over at the Jaguars subreddit:

"Ben Roethlisberger at 24: first 9 games of the season:17/32, 141 yards, 0 TDs, 2 INTs18/39, 208 Yards, 0 TDs, 3 INTs20/31, 220 Yards, 0 TDs, 2 INTs16/19, 238 Yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs16/22, 238 Yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs25/37, 301 Yards, 1 TDs, 4 INTs38/54, 433 Yards, 1 TDs, 3 INTs17/28, 264 Yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs25/44, 272 Yards, 2 TDs, 3 INTsTotal through 9 games167/306, 2315 Yards, 11 TDs, 17 INTsBlake Bortles through 9 games228/380, 2421 Yards, 16 TDs, 11 INTsBen Roethlisberger:“Any stretch of nine games where you have such poor play is enough of a reason to make a permanent change, either now or in the offseason. The only time you’d tolerate this level of play is if the QB was a rookie or second-year player.”This was Big Ben’s 3rd season. same as bortles."

Given Roethlisberger’s career trajectory, this is enough to keep me patient with the young quarterback as we trudge through the rest of the disappointing 2016 campaign.