After 45 starts, haven’t they seen enough to know? But why risk it? Why potentially expose $19 million on a hunch with no documented evidence it will pay off. Why are the Jags so eager to wager $19 million on the belief that Bortles will play well? Granted the option is guaranteed only for injury and Bortles has not missed a game since his rookie season in 2014. What has Bortles accomplished to deserve to have his fifth-year option exercised, which the Jags did last week?ĭoes that make sense to you? It doesn’t to me. Even bad quarterbacks can play well to start games - but not Bortles. Yet the powers that be in Jacksonville think Bortles can improve. Most NFL fans, and especially the six teams that “Fitzy” played for, believe he is at best a journeyman backup. What makes Bortles’s numbers so alarming is that over the same span Ryan Fitzpatrick - currently out of work - has thrown 22 touchdown passes and seven picks in the first half. Does that count as a lot of new eyes?Īm I to assume that new Jaguars executive vice president Tom Coughlin has watched the tape over the past two years - witnessing eight wins and 24 losses in those 32 games - and determined that Bortles’s flaws are just a matter of technique and fundamentals? Am I also to assume that Coughlin has ignored that in the first half of those games Bortles has thrown 20 touchdowns and 19 interceptions with just 27 completions over 25 yards? Only newly installed quarterback coach Scott Milanovich has never worked with Bortles. New eyes? Head coach Doug Marrone - who had the “interim” tag removed this offseason - has watched Bortles play for the past 32 games (first as an assistant head coach beginning in 2015), as has former QB coach and new offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, and Ron Middleton, the tight end coach. We still think … he’s got a lot of room to improve.” “We’ve got a lot of new eyes on Blake from a new coaching staff and have gotten good feedback from those guys, guys that haven’t been around and who don’t have anything vested in the kid. Just read these comments from the man who drafted Bortles: “I think you guys know how we feel about Blake,” general manager David Caldwell said last month. It takes time and an open mind, things that don’t seem to exist in Jacksonville. I readily admit that determining whether a player is a franchise quarterback is not as easy as passing “The Door Test” from A Bronx Tale. One thing in the league that I refuse to change my mind on given the ongoing evidence: Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles is not a franchise player, or even a quality starter in the NFL. There are even small things in the NFL about which I am unshakable in my opinion. It isn’t just matters as vast and sensitive as a national tragedy that I refuse to change my mind about. If anyone could explain all the inconsistencies with Oswald’s movements and associations, then maybe I could be convinced. Norman Mailer never convinced me, nor did Anthony Summers. To balance Stone’s theories, I devoured every book supporting the notion that Oswald was the lone gunman, and I still don’t buy it. I don’t believe every word, just the basic premise - the lone gunman theory was far bigger than Oswald. I admit to watching the movie JFK 10,000 times and am well aware of the liberties taken by writer-director Oliver Stone. For example, I don’t believe for one minute that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating President John F. Since first reading those words uttered by Jack Nicholson, no matter how strongly I believe in something, I’ve forced myself to be open to the possibility of having my mind changed. I want to know, you understand? I like listening to everybody. I’m probably the only liberal who read Treason, by Ann Coulter.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |