Jacksonville Jaguars & Blake Bortles rank 28th among QBs per Sports on Earth
By Luke Sims
Blake Bortles may still be the starting quarterback for the Jacksonville Jaguars, but he doesn’t stack up to competition from other team’s starters.
Ragging on Blake Bortles has been a common theme through the offseason. From Jacksonville Jaguars fans to the NFL media, there are few times that the “questions at quarterback” have not been mentioned.
In the modern NFL that is to be expected. No position in sports is more important than quarterback and Bortles scared everyone after following up his stellar 2015 campaign with an absolute dud in 2016. From being considered one of the best young quarterbacks to one of the worst, Bortles is certainly unpredictable.
Reflecting that, Sports on Earth got in on the drubbing of Bortles with the latest quarterback rankings. Bortles and backups came in at 28th, just ahead of the Brock Osweiler-led Cleveland Browns group and Jared Goff with the Los Angeles Rams. The unfortunate quarterback situations with the New York Jets and San Francisco 49ers brought up the rear.
Here is what writer Kenneth Arthur had to say:
"In 2015, Bortles threw 35 touchdowns and had over 4,400 yards, but he wasn’t even close to “good.” That season, he was 25th in DYAR and 30th in QBR, because his Y/A was still low, he threw 18 picks, and had a completion percentage of 58.6; Bortles has never posted a completion percentage higher than 58.9. He’s been a bad quarterback for three years, how good could he possibly be in year four?"
What is generally different about Arthur’s ranking compared to many others is the lack of emphasis on the high points of Bortles’ career in the 2015 season. Using DYAR and QBR as the driving factors in his rankings of the quarterbacks, Arthur is able to pin down Bortles’ performances as less like a roller coaster and more like a kiddie coaster.
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The mild highs highlighted by the low DYAR and QBR simply aren’t enough to elevate Bortles over the others – at least in Arthur’s book. Honestly, it’s tough to disagree. When using some of the more nuanced measures of quarterback “success” (I’m personally a fan of yards per attempt), it is easier to compare quarterbacks against each other and be less inclined to rely on the exciting big plays that can make 2015 Bortles look like one of the best in the NFL.
While I can’t throw Bortles out completely as being an un-salvageable quarterback, based on the data provided it can be pretty easy to paint Bortles as being barely above a quarterback situation like Cleveland’s.