4 first-round mistakes that continue to haunt the Jacksonville Jaguars

2. QB Blake Bortles, 3rd overall pick in 2014

Finding a franchise quarterback is no easy task. The Jags know this firsthand. After moving on from Mark Brunell, they tried several times to find stability at the position but failed every single time. Maybe that's why they tried to make the Blake Bortles pick work even though he was far from the solution.

Having pulled the plug on the Blaine Gabbert experiment, the Jags chose Bortles at No. 3 in 2014. While he was better than Gabbert he was by no means a franchise quarterback. Yet, the team treated him as if he was one. By 2018, they had given him an extension but they would come to regret it just one year later. Trying to quickly turn the page, they released the "Boat" and signed Nick Foles to an awful four-year deal worth $88 million. Foles wasn't much better and was run out of town just one year later.

But as underwhelming as Bortles was throughout his stint in Jacksonville, the Jaguars' brass deserves the blame for continuing to give him chances even though he didn't deserve them. Jacksonville made it to the AFC Championship in 2017 because of their defense but Bortles was the one who got rewarded. Not surprisingly, it hurt the team's morale and they came crashing down in 2018, winning just five games.

To make matters worse, the Jaguars chose not to make upgrades at quarterback for years because they had Blake Bortles in the fold. Imagine how much better they would've been if they had drafted a quarterback in 2017 or 2018. They had their first share of options but passed on them because of Bortles.

The moral is that just because you're a bit better than you were previously doesn't mean you've gotten out of the funk, and drafting Bortles surely taught the Jags that.