Blake Bortles Is Your Starting Quarterback In Week One At Houston
By Larry Brake
Blake Bortles will get the nod at quarterback in Houston. Could it be because of Shad Khan’s comments were starting a buzz?
The Jacksonville Jaguars opened up the starting quarterback position after the Tampa Bay preseason game. Due to underwhelming performances by both Chad Henne and Blake Bortles, there were thoughts that Jacksonville might look for someone outside the organization. As a result, Bortles will be the quarterback going into week one.
How did Bortles win the job over Henne? Was this a real competition for the position or something else? Jaguars owner Shad Khan said that he was open to signing Colin Kaepernick.
Did Khan’s answer have anything to do with Bortles and Henne? Currently, Kaepernick is a free agent. In his career, Kaepernick has 1011 pass completions for 12,271 yards with 72 touchdowns since 2011. He has garnered much attention by his actions and by his supporters. Did the Jaguars make a rush decision to deflect the attention away from Khan’s statement?
How Blake Bortles Won The Starting Quarterback Job In A Week
First, according to the Doug Marrone press conference per John Oehser of jaguars.com:
"The first thing that I look at is to make sure who’s going to give us the best chance to win in the situation we’re in,” Marrone said. “I look at everything with the quarterback position – how we want to play, and what we want to do.” Marrone quickly mentioned mobility as a reason for choosing Bortles. “He has the ability to extend plays for us, which I think is going to be helpful,” Marrone said."
Next, Bortles replaced Henne in 2014 due to poor quarterback play. Consequently, Henne has better preseason numbers than Bortles. Henne has 19 completions for 256 yards with one touchdown and a 101.5 quarterback rating. Bortles, on the other hand, has 23 completions for 206 yards with one touchdown and a 81.3 quarterback rating. It makes complete sense, right?
Finally, there is an old quote often attributed to either Ben Franklin or Albert Einstein. “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Since 2012, the Jaguars quarterback was either Henne, or Bortles. No playoff appearance since 2007 for Jacksonville.
The Jaguars have to make a move to improve at quarterback but the question is, have they squandered away the season just to prove that Bortles is salvageable?