Coloring With Teal: Making Room on the Blake Bortles Bandwagon

Over the past two months, the Jacksonville Jaguars have played coy with their quarterback plans. Now that the 2017 NFL Draft is in the books, CWT wants to look at the current status of embattled QB Blake Bortles ahead of the team’s offseason activities.

Good week, readers and Jags fans!

As you may recall, the Jacksonville Jaguars (and 31 other teams) spent last weekend playing Football Bingo. Many fans went in expecting CoughCaldArrone (a.k.a. CMC) to draft a quarterback in the first round, or at least the second round, to eventually supplant struggling quarterback Blake Bortles. Many of those same fans came away disappointed in the Jaguars’ decision to stay with Blake and boosting the offense with running back Leonard Fournette and tackle Cam Robinson.

This apathy was echoed in many articles on both this site (by our friend Lionel Joel) and by just about everyone who writes for our friendly competitor over at Big Cat Country.

Friends, there is sound reason to be excited about the Jaguars’ prospects for success this fall.

I’ve already outlined the arguments here (and here) that suggest that Bortles is not the “disaster” many have concluded him to be. I won’t be re-litigating those points today, so don’t click away just yet.

Instead, with all the negative outlooks coming at us from nearly all NFL/Jacksonville Jaguars sources, I like to bring a different take. I believe that there are some fans who haven’t given up on No. 5, and they deserve an article reinforcing their sentiment.

Also, if it does turn out that CMC were right about their plans to repair that which ails Bortles, many of you will start to have hope. I’m here for you, too.

We here at the CWT are currently making sure that there’s plenty of space on the Bortles Bandwagon.

You see, the Jaguars are in “Phase 2” of their offseason program, and it began just this past Monday. During Phase 2, the Jaguars are working with Bortles, focusing on individual instruction and very likely doing drills. It is during this time that they are looking at how his work this offseason has made a difference in his motion. It is during this time that they will go over every. single. detail. of every throw in every game in 2016, and probably 2015.

They have been planning this three-week dissection since Tom Coughlin and Doug Marrone officially took their jobs in early January. With Coughlin’s obsessive approach to details, with Marrone’s already successful approach to getting Bortles ready to be a good quarterback in the final two weeks of 2017, expect Bortles to be feeling the heat already.

All of this is to help drill into him better decision-making. The next step is when we will start to hear about his actual improvement. We’ve already heard Marrone’s satisfaction with Bortles’ arrival to the offseason conditioning program, as printed by Fox Sports:

"“He came in, he’s lean, he’s in shape, it seems like he’s ready to go,” Marrone said. “I’m excited to see him on the field and see him out there throwing.”"

This tells me that Bortles has spent the last four months taking his job and its jeopardy seriously. Of course, there’s also this quote from Blake Bortles as reported by ESPN’s Mike DiRocco:

"“The only thing I missed was instead of going and throwing with somebody that’s watching me throw and critiquing and helping every single throw, I threw here by myself the whole time and had nobody watching or telling me what I was doing wrong. And I can’t do that. I need people to help me. I need constant feedback on stuff like that.”"

Don’t forget, my Jaguars-faithful readers, he came into the 2015 season with everyone having low expectations of him. 35 touchdowns and 16 interceptions later, we were all in a tizzy about how exciting the 2016 season would be with an even-more improved Bortles. And his decision-making was already questioned after 2015.

What happens if he repeats 2015, statistically, number by number? Should we still replace him? It will technically be an improvement over 2016. The Jaguars will likely be a better team in the win column by that alone. Nevermind Leonard Fournette or an improved defense (on paper). Will these factors be enough to turn most of those last-quarter, less-than-one-touchdown losses into wins in 2017?

If it does, don’t worry. We here at the CWT offices nestled deep within the Black and Teal Empire are currently making sure that there’s plenty of space on the Bortles Bandwagon.

Maybe you’ll come aboard after good OTA’s. Maybe you’ll say “well, he was good in OTAs last years. See how that went?”

More from Jacksonville Jaguars News

It takes time for mechanics to break down, and he didn’t have Tom House (QB guru and all-round QB whisperer).

Maybe you’ll find hope during training camp or in the preseason, when live contact can show us Blake Bortles’ growth.

Maybe it won’t be until midway through the season, when the wins start coming and we win games due in part to his development.

Maybe it won’t come until after the 2017 ends.

Heck, it may not happen until after he has a good 2018 season.

Whenever it happens, don’t worry. We’ve got space for you.

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