12-29-2014, 12:50 PM
Here's a decent article on the topic that echoes some of the things myself and others have been posting:
http://espn.go.com/blog/jacksonville-jag...fense-wont
I'm moderately confident we'll see enough improvement from Bortles that people start calling him a "franchise QB" next season. I wouldn't be surprised to see him throw for 3800+ yds next year and near 20 TDs. It really wouldn't take much to elevate his game to that level, IMO. Obviously, he's got work to do to get there, and he'll need some improvement around him to pull it off, but I think it's do-able.
http://espn.go.com/blog/jacksonville-jag...fense-wont
Quote:...quarterbacks coach Frank Scelfo will help Bortles map out a schedule until the offseason program begins. Coaches and players cannot have much contact with each other at that time of the year, per NFL rules, so that will put much of the responsibility on Bortles.
"I think speeding up the decision-making will come from knowledge. This offseason has to be a constant quest for knowledge," Fisch said recently. "When we are not together for those X amount of months that we’re not allowed to see one another, he has to make sure that he is studying, studying, studying, studying our offense so that when we come back together and we can meet, we can then start talking about defenses.
"If we have to start over and just talk about our offense for those next three months, then the decision-making process won’t get sped up because we’ll then go back to not being able to focus in on all of the little tips and reminders that defenses can give us, so that [the offense] is where his focus is going to be. I think if he does that and owns it, now we can do a great job of giving him indicators to really help him play fast."
The footwork issue is a matter of drilling over and over to imprint the proper fundamentals into Bortles' muscle memory. He got little instruction in that area in high school and college, so he’s behind a bit and it’s not going to be easy, but it’s simply a matter of committing enough time to make it second nature.
Quote:…."It’s hard to work on during the season," Bortles said. "There’s not a whole lot of time for fundamentals to be worked on, but it’s the thing that you say, ‘Let’s make sure that it doesn’t get any worse, and in the offseason we can try and fix as much as possible.’"
I'm moderately confident we'll see enough improvement from Bortles that people start calling him a "franchise QB" next season. I wouldn't be surprised to see him throw for 3800+ yds next year and near 20 TDs. It really wouldn't take much to elevate his game to that level, IMO. Obviously, he's got work to do to get there, and he'll need some improvement around him to pull it off, but I think it's do-able.