After an off-season full of promising draft selections and free agent acquisitions, the Jacksonville Jaguars future stock with Blake Bortles at the helm looks to be on the rise.
Despite going 5-11 in 2015, there was plenty to get excited about. The wide receiver duo of Allen Robinson and Allen Hurns combined for 2,431 yards and 24 touchdowns in 2015 while rookie running back T.J. Yeldon offered explosive running. The addition of Chris Ivory in the backfield brings even more options. Finally, the talented Rashad Greene and Marqise Lee offer wide receiver depth.
Some analysts suggest the Jaguars will make the playoffs in 2016, and part of the reason is because of Bortles, but his erratic play should give football viewers cause to pause.
Blake Bortles: The NFL’s Most Inconsistent Quarterback
Bortles is coming off a breakthrough statistical season, in which he completed 355 of 606 passes for 4,428 yards and 35 touchdowns. Based on these numbers alone, it’s easy to see why Jaguars fans and many of the media are high on this young quarterback.
But while Bortles’ passing touchdowns (35) and passing yards ranked second and seventh, respectively, he threw 18 interceptions, the most in the league in 2015. His 3.0 interception percentage was the fourth worst, his 58.6 completion percentage ranked fifth-to-last in terms of qualifiers and his 88.2 passer rating only placed 23rd. So while he dominated PPR fantasy leagues, his statistics as a whole were inconstant.
The word that comes to mind when discussing Bortles is simply, inconsistent. Even his game-by-game stats prove this.
(Via ESPN.com)
But enough about the stats. It’s time to show exactly why Bortles is inconsistent. As a passer, he is well known for his escapability and aptness to buy time and extend the play in the pocket. With his talented arm, he has been described as a Brett Favre-esque “gunslinger.”
If being a quarterback was just about these traits, Bortles might be in the top-10 echelon, or slightly outside it. He has a laundry list of flaws, however, that hold him back for now. With their ability to overwhelm defensive backs, though, “The Allens” have diminished Bortles’ need to throw accurately. Hurns is one of the game’s top slot receivers, while Robinson on the whole is a matchup freak. This makes the 58.6 completion percentage more puzzling. While it wouldn’t account for drops or failures at the catch point, Bortles is at times a very inaccurate passer. Part of that comes from his footwork. Sporadically, Bortles awkwardly sets his feet under pressure, often resulting in inaccurate passes.
Right away in the above two plays, you can notice several issues. In the first, Allen Robinson has not yet developed his route, while Bortles’ pocket is collapsing. The correct thing to do would be to escape the pocket to buy time. Instead, Bortles gets scared because of the incoming pressure and rushes the throw, resulting in a dangerous incompletion. His apparent awkward mechanics on the throw confirm this.
In the second play, Bortles’ feet are planted gauchely from the beginning. As the five-man protection collapses, Bortles’ foot placement and his mechanics result in an inaccurate pass to Robinson, which would’ve been a first down with good mechanics.
Shown above are two more examples of Bortles providing poor footwork and scared throws under pressure. The first throw was tipped by the Buffalo Bills pass rush, but this was likely because Bortles ducked as he threw the incomplete pass. Instead of standing tall and relishing the inevitable hit, he cowers and releases the ball. On the second play, not only did Bortles miss a wide open receiver down the middle, but as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense pressured him, he rushed his throw to a receiver that wasn’t close to being open, resulting in an interception.
It’s this kind of play under pressure that worries me about Bortles. When he’s required to quickly get the ball out under this kind of pressure, he often stumbles and fires haphazardly, which seemed plentiful in 2015.
Another major flaw of Bortles is that he runs into sacks. The Jaguars’ pass protection was by no means good in 2015, but matters were not helped by Bortles’ inability to feel pressure around him.
The first two sacks are pretty bad, but the last two are something else. In the Titans game, Bortles literally ran into a sack. True, there might not have been much to do there, but better awareness is required. The one from the Ravens game is the worst, though. After doing a nice job of escaping pressure, Bortles, for reasons that are not explainable, never saw the incoming defender on the left and took too long to get rid of the football (or should I say attempt to get rid of the football). Ultimately, he paid the price for it and took this abysmal sack to end the first quarter.
Despite it not being as alarming as his footwork and sack-taking, his inaccuracy something to take note of.
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In the first play, Bortles offers good footwork as he makes the throw, but misses the wide open receiver on the potential game-winning touchdown. The second play demonstrates more terrible footwork under pressure, preventing the receiver from creating separation or even getting a chance to win on a 50/50 jumpball. The third play is similar, except Robinson makes the catch because of his talent matching up.
Because Bortles’ momentum on the last two plays pushes him backward, the passes are weaker, resulting in two nearly-intercepted throws. Receivers like Julius Thomas struggled at times to catch the ball, but Bortles’ was equally as bad, if not worse.
With all the negatives hashed out, let’s evaluate the good side of Bortles.
As previously stated, Bortles does not thrive when asked to get rid of the ball quickly under pressure, but when forced out of the pocket, he’s given more time to survey the playing field to find the open receiver.
Above are two great examples of Bortles thriving out of the pocket. The first play represents the closest he is to resembling a young Ben Roethlisberger. As he rolls right, he notices Robinson getting open at the last minute and fires an excellent pass for a big play.
The second play is not a completed pass, as Hurns drops it, but Bortles nevertheless does a nice job of avoiding the sack and climbing up the pocket to deliver what should have been a catch.
Three more examples of Bortles’ well known ability to play outside the pocket are documented above. The first play feels like something Tony Romo would do, as the quarterback evades pressure and gets his receiver to come closer to him, resulting in an accurate pass and a first down. The second play is a designed rollout, but it results in a dime of a touchdown throw to Robinson. The third play is a game winning touchdown to Hurns, and Bortles does an excellent job of putting the ball in a place where only his receiver can catch the ball.
While Bortles takes some really bad sacks, he generally knows when to throw the ball away when needed. This is something a Washington Redskins signal-caller Kirk Cousins often failed to understand last year. As his mobility also helps him extend plays, it also allows for big gains on quarterback runs, an aspect the Jaguars should continue to utilize in the near future.
While the first and third running plays above aren’t spectacular, they show off Bortles’ awareness to climb out of the pocket and run when necessary. The second play is an impressive run, with the quarterback climbing to gain ground and barely get the first down on a second and long.
Bortles gunslinging attitude frustrates at times, but it also amazes with the connections and playmaking. Such style of play could be compared to top quarterbacks like Eli Manning or Cam Newton, but their consistency and decision-making are far greater than Bortles’ for the time being.
At times, the gunslinger will make multiple reads, and at times he doesn’t. Sometimes he’ll stand tall in the pocket, other times he’ll awkwardly pedal backward. Sometimes he’ll make an astounding extension of the play, other times he’ll hold onto the ball to long and take the bad sack. Sometimes he’ll connect downfield, other times he’ll throw a questionable pass or a boneheaded interception.
Bortles will be an adequate starter for a while, but whether or not he’ll be a good or great one has yet to be determined. Although he boasts some superstar-level tools, he does put forth backup ways from time to time. You really never know which side of him you’re going to get, and while the Jaguars have issues with the offensive line and defense, they also need Bortles to step up as a whole.
Regardless of which side is dissected more, Bortles’ maddening inconsistency offers both frustration and excitement for the Jaguars’ future, and I look forward to seeing if the young quarterback can take strides in 2016.
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