Jacksonville Jaguars receive B-minus for offseason from NFL executives
By Daniel Lago
Despite the unpopular decision to extend Blake Bortles, the Jacksonville Jaguars had a decent offseason according to NFL executives.
Narrowly missing out on a trip to the Super Bowl, the Jacksonville Jaguars had their 2017 season end with a thud despite the long and exciting ride it proved to be over the course of 16 regular season games and 3 postseason games.
Even with the unexpected success, many began to look around for someone to blame as the team reflected on their loss in the AFC Championship game to the New England Patriots.
His terrific performance notwithstanding, Blake Bortles was the focus for national analysts who wanted to pin the loss on one player. It’s a lazy and ill-conceived narrative, and it got even more fuel over the offseason when the Jaguars decided not only to keep Bortles, but to extend his contract.
The perception within the league of Bortles may not be the same however.
Mike Sando recently put together a piece where he collected opinions from a wide range of NFL executives to grade each team’s overall offseason.
The Jaguars shockingly didn’t get dinged too much for keeping quarterback Blake Bortles, en route to a decent grade.
"Jacksonville JaguarsGrade: B-Re-signing Blake Bortles, breaking the bank for guard Andrew Norwell, casting aside multiple receivers and giving Donte Moncrief way more money than expected will define this Jaguars offseason.“It’s such a great story that they extended the quarterback because when you look at their options, do you really want to sink $17, 18, 19 million into a free agent?” an exec asked. “Do you want to pay Cousins what he got? No. Are you better off drafting one high? Not this year. It’s a really good exercise in not getting so aggressive that you screw it up. And after the success they had, they can survive re-signing Bortles politically. You can be excited about other things on the team.”The one-year, $9.6 million deal for Moncrief was not one of them. One exec placed it among the worst deals in recent memory. Another marveled that the deal could wind up giving Indianapolis a 2019 fourth-round compensatory pick.“I don’t know if you go all-in for a guard, although Norwell is a good player,” an exec said. “They want to build their team from a physical standpoint, ground and pound. I don’t think they got better at receiver, but that is not how they are built, so I get it. I don’t think Bortles is going to take them where they want to go, but if you trust the defense and trust the running game, you can only have him be a manager. More power to you. They were damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”"
It’s honestly quite shocking to see someone calling the Blake Bortles extension a ‘great story’ but I’ll take it. And this isn’t the first time we’ve seen the Moncrief signing panned, but it’s hyperbole to call it one of the worst deals in recent memory. It’s a one year deal for a player who’s struggled with injuries but has flashed incredible ability – medium risk, high reward.
Going back to Bortles, one possibility few people have considered is how good can this team be if the much maligned signal caller is actually good? All reports out of OTAs paint the picture of an improved, confident quarterback who might finally be hitting his stride.
If Bortles takes the next step this year, the offseason grade becomes an A-plus and nothing else matters.