Is Blake Bortles Regressing?

By Djack

Coming into this season the Jaguars were on many peoples radars as the sleeper team that could make some noise this year. After playing 7 games this season it's safe to say they aren't what we expected them to be, when teams don't live up to their hype people start looking for a scapegoat, and unfortunately for Blake Bortles the scapegoat has been him. Bortles had expectations to take the next step this year, after a statistically good sophomore season, Bortles was supposed to elevate the Jaguars to a playoff bound team, and he's coming up far too short for even the laid back Jacksonville fans to handle. Bortles is 24 years old and the Jaguars could potentially be calling it quits on him, or at least that's what sports personality after sports personality is recommending they do. What do I have to say to that, well it'd probably be the biggest mistake this Jacksonville franchise could make. The quarterback position is without doubt the hardest position in the NFL to get a good talent at just ask the Browns, that's why most teams with good franchise quarterbacks enjoy success year after year without having consecutive losing season's for more than a 3 year period. Bortles put up huge numbers for a sophomore quarterback throwing for 4400 yards, 35 touchdowns, 58% completion, and 18 interceptions, very promising numbers for a NFL quarterback at the age of 23. This year there's only been 7 games played by the Jags, but Bortles is on pace to put up 4400 yards, 28 touchdowns, 60% completion, and 19 interceptions, clearly a small drop off int the TD/Int ratio, but nothing drastic to make you think this kid has lost his ability to ball out. I do however think Bortles has hit his ceiling, not necessarily his career potential ceiling, but he has reached his ceiling within this system, which should never happen to a quarterback of that age. There in lies the problem, the Jaguars coaching staff, they have Gus Bradley as their head coach, he has won 14 games in 3 1/2 years for the Jaguars, the fact he still has a job is mind blowing enough. Gus Bradley is a former defensive coordinator for the Seahawks, that's basically why he got the job, the Seahawks defense was so amazing it had to be the coordinator right. Wrong, Seattle's defense has stayed at the same elite level, meanwhile the Jaguars defense has gotten worse ever single season that Bradley has been head coach, I'm sure there's no correlation though(that's sarcasm for those of you who won't understand without me clearly stating it). Bortles is now on his 3rd offensive coordinator in just as many seasons, ask the 49ers how that worked out in the development of Alex Smith. Jaguars need to fire Bradley because obviously that signing was a major fail, they literally just replaced the offensive coordinator, so if this one doesn't pan out over the course of the rest of the regular season just start over from scratch, and with the right coaches in place watch Bortles blossom into the awesome quarterback he can be. There is no doubt that he can make all the throws a quarterback at this level has to make, the real question is can the Jaguars get him the right support behind the scenes to elevate him, after all isn't the coaches job to elevate the opportunity of the player to succeed by putting them in good positions to execute. Anyone ready to give up on Blake Bortles is a fool, give the kid time, why are you in a rush to get a new quarterback Jacksonville fans, look at the Jets they rush into a quarterback change every season, and look where that's gotten them. Be patient with Blake, get him an offensive minded head coach, and all this is Blake Bortles regressing talk will go by the way side.