Blake Bortles

Greg Cosell on Jagaurs QB Blake Bortles:

This offseason, Bortles has to go back to basics. He lost his technique.

There are all kinds of valid reason for that – the Jaguars offensive line was below average, the offense was inconsistent, there was an inability to stay on schedule during games because of that inconsistency and the Jaguars trailing most of the time – but the bottom line is he lost his technique and needs to go back to school and start from scratch. I don’t mean that in a negative way. But before the Jaguars get to “What are the best route concepts against ‘Cover 4’ zone?” they need to work with him so he has repetitive proper fundamentals. Otherwise he won’t throw it accurately enough on a consistent basis.

One thing I noticed is Bortles started to have a tendency to drop the ball too low in his release. That throws off the timing, if the release and stride isn’t working together. Then you lose velocity and accuracy. Bortles has a good arm (though not a great one) but his arm strength suffers when the mechanics suffer. There are too many moving parts.

Bortles averaged 12.0 fantasy points per game, which led to a #24 finish at his position. He's a passer who could make a leap in his second season if the Jaguars can give him time to throw and he can clean up his fundamentals. The receiving corps is young but talented, with Allen Robinson, Marqise Lee, Allen Hurns and potentially Justin Blackmon all capable of producing when given the opportunity. Bortles averaged nearly 30 yards rushing, so he offers some baseline production as a runner.