Blake Bortles ‘can win a Super Bowl’ according to David Caldwell

Most fans and analysts have jumped ship on Blake Bortles as a franchise quarterback, but general manager David Caldwell still believes…

As the 2016 season came to a close and the Jacksonville Jaguars parted ways with historically atrocious head coach Gus Bradley, the next big question facing the franchise became what to do with Blake Bortles.

The 3rd overall pick of the 2014 NFL Draft had a horrific 2016 campaign, only one year removed from a 2015 season that saw the UCF product break franchise records for touchdown passes and passing yards while landing in the top 10 of some year-end quarterback rankings online. Multiple reasons have been cited for Bortles’ unprecedented struggles this year, mainly the lack of focus in the offseason on his mechanics.

The truth of the matter is that the issues with Bortles stem much deeper. Bortles is going to enter his 4th season in the NFL and he hasn’t shown enough in terms of reading defenses and making routine plays to think he’ll ever progress much as a consistent quarterback. Bortles flashed plenty of “wow” plays in 2015, but those were intermittent and clearly not enough to lift the Jaguars to anything above “feisty” as a contending team.

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It’s hard to imagine Bortles ever becoming an upper-echelon passer at this point, but don’t tell general manager David Caldwell that:

"“I’ve said this time and time again: ‘I think we can win a lot of games with Blake; I think we can win a Super Bowl with Blake,” Caldwell said. “I think he needs to improve and I think we need to improve around him, too, in order for that to happen.”"

Obviously Caldwell has something invested in Bortles – after all, Caldwell stuck his flag into the Bortles hill when he shocked the world by taking him third overall – but it’s still interesting to see him double down so emphatically. Caldwell survived hiring the worst head coach of all time, so one could make the argument Caldwell can get away with punting on Bortles and finding another franchise QB.

To be clear, I don’t think it’s time to completely give up on Bortles yet. I do believe a more disciplined voice in the locker room will motivate him to get better, but it’s now going to be a question of how much better. Regardless of Bortles’ progress in the offseason, it would behoove the Jaguars to bring in another viable option at quarterback.

Logistically, Caldwell doesn’t really call the shots anymore (Tom Coughlin does). We still have to wait and see what Coughlin thinks of Bortles, something we’ll know more about after the draft.