Blake Bortles Isn't To Blame For The Jaguars Struggles
Even though NFL fans and media are blaming Blake Bortles for the bad start to the Jacksonville Jaguars season, it shouldn't be the case. This is because the Jaguars have continued to implement an offensive system that heavily relies on the passing game in an attempt to prove to the public that drafting Blake Bortles was a good investment. Due to this, the team is 4th in the league in passing attempts per game as they average 41.5 per game according to team rankings. While this offensive system has shown flashes of brilliance, it prevents them from achieving their goal of winning football games. Since the organization is focused on proving that Bortles can make every single NFL throw; instead of developing a game plan around his strengths. For instance, the team wants to show the public that Bortles can thrive in the intermediate passing game, but in reality, he is unable to because of a lack of accuracy. According to ESPN, over the past two seasons, Bortles has a completion percentage of 35.5 and 50.5 on throws from 11-20 yards in 2015 and 2016 respectively. As a result of this, the offense was unable to keep the ball for extended periods of time, which forces defense having to go back on the field without the proper amount of rest. Which leads to the defense being more susceptible to giving up yards and points because they were not able to regain some energy between possessions to be able to stop the opposing offense.
Therefore, it would behoove the Jaguars to turn Blake Bortles into more of a game manager who is primarily in charge of handling the ball off or running the ball on his own to get the opposing defense to stack the box. Once the Jaguars made the opposing defense honor the running game by stacking the box, it will allow them to call some short passes. For instance, the Jaguars can call a play-action bootleg where he would fake the handoff to the running backs and roll out in the opposite direction to hit the wide-open tight end. This allows the Jaguars to emphasize the strengths of Bortles, which is the short passing game while still being able to gain a substantial amount of yards per play. Furthermore, it allows the team to keep drives alive while forcing the opposing team to put more players in coverage to decrease the likelihood of big plays consistently happening thus giving the running backs room to run the ball again. Therefore allowing the offense to stay on the field for a prolonged period. Which means that the defense received the proper rest between drives which enabled them to have enough energy to execute a properly tackle to a player when they are running with the ball or being able to keep up with wide receivers. If the Jaguars to turn Blake Bortles into more of a game manager, they will most likely win eight or more games.
