On June 7, the Jacksonville Sharks add veteran quarterback Jason Boltus. Boltus played for the Tampa Bay Storm in the Arena Football League before joining the National Arena League.

Jacksonville Sharks Add Veteran Quarterback Jason Boltus

Boltus is joining Jacksonville after coming out of retirement. He has some serious talent coming into Jacksonville, playing in the Canadian Football League (CFL), United Football League (UFL), and Arena Football League (AFL).

Canadian Football League Experience

Boltus isnt really knows for being in the CFL and probably doesn’t want to remember his CFL days, but in 2009, he started his professional career with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. In his time there, he only played in 2011, which was his last season with the Tiger-Cats. He threw for 48-yards on 15-attempts and no touchdowns or interceptions.

In 2013, Boltus was with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. That year, he threw for 91-yards on 25-attempts with no touchdowns and 12-interceptions.

United Football League Experience

With the Omaha Nighthawks in 2012, Boltus had a solid year, throwing 71 of 135 for 920 yards with five touchdowns and six interceptions.

His UFL stats look better than his CFL stats, but there’s still room for improvements.

Arena Football League Stats

Finally, we get to where Boltus made the big numbers appear. He started his AFL career with the Spokane Shock in 2012, which still wasn’t the greatest year because it was his early career. In this season, he threw for 30 yards and one interception while the Shock went 10-8.

In 2013, he joined the Utah Blaze, where he racked up 1,425 yards and 31 touchdowns and only seven interceptions. This is definitely the season that Boltus made a name for himself.

Boltus finally joined a team who has always had winning seasons and was pretty consistent with everything, which was the Orlando Predators in 2014. He passed for 2,702 yards that season and threw 54 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. This was the season where he found a good rhythm with the league, but did not continue to play for the Predators in 2015, instead going to the team down Interstate 4, the Tampa Bay Storm.

In Tampa Bay, Boltus made record numbers, getting the most passing yards in 2015 with 5,025 yards. Boltus threw 98 touchdowns and 23 interceptions. This season in Tampa, the Storm went 7-11. With those passing numbers, one would expect the Storm to do just a bit better than their record.

In 2016, however, Boltus took a step down and didn’t get very many pass opportunities, only passing the ball 413 times compared to the 714 attempts in 2015. In 2016, he threw for 2,652 yards, 42 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions.

His Expectations In the NAL

It’s obvious that the (10-0) Jacksonville Sharks are looking to win every single game this season. With Damien Fleming in as their starting quarterback after Tommy Grady got hurt, he has done well, but has struggled a lot more than Grady would have. Sharks head coach Siaha Burley knew something had to happen if he wanted his team to go undefeated and win the championship in the NAL’s inaugural season.

Boltus’ has high expectations. The Sharks front office, staff, teammates, and even fans want to see amazing stats out of him, not very many turnovers, and tons of touchdowns. Most importantly, the Sharks miss Grady’s long bombs down the field, an area where Fleming isn’t comfortable doing.

The fans expect Boltus to dominate their opponents and win the championship. With this amazing talent coming off of his 2015 and 2016 season, many can see Boltus fitting in real well in Jacksonville.