Quote:sure if you just look at numbers. Bortles doesn't look like a natural thrower. It literally looks as if he puts his body through pain every time he throws the ball. It's an ugly and inaccurate mess. For me, this is the main reason why I say that I've seen enough from him.
Eli-and there are others- looked completely lost and clueless at times, and made throws that were completely inexplicable. The "eye test" would have resulted in a blindfold. It was ugly at times.
You may not recall Giant fans commenting about how lost he looked and utterly confused his first few seasons, but I'm sure they do.
What I believe you see in Blake is a lack of confidence in what he is doing, as so much has gone wrong, and frankly he was rattled. There are times his mechanics are completely fine, he is accurate, and he is in rhythm. He started and finished the year not so bad in that respect. Then things rolled downhill for a long while, obviously. There were a lot of factors there--and many, if not all, he acknowledged and tried to correct on his own, despite coaching DISCOURAGING HIM from doing so. That's stunning.
I just watched the Raven game, which was a typical game for us this year. Starting at the 9 after we fumble the opening kickoff....3rd and long after 3rd and long. Deflections leading to picks. Running backs not picking up 3rd and 1 time after time. It seemed we were in 3 and 7 or more the majority of the year. I ran those numbers before in a different post. Not a ton of QB's are going to have consistent success with the pathetic situations we put ourselves in this year. Blake has accountability there, to be sure, but NO ONE picked him up. Drops, key penalties, lack of hustle, terrible and inconsistent coaching, all of it played into the nightmare.
Our whole team, offensively, was in a funk where they didn't believe they could get it done. Rewatch the team on the next to the last throw, for example, in the Raven game, which was picked off after a deflection. Every receiver except Lee gave up on their route as Blake was scrambling (futilely as it turned out) to make something happen. Just an example there. 11 guys contributed to that.
People act like he's throwing Jamarcus Russell, Sanchez, Gabbert production out there.
I think the last time a team (and obviously some fans) just gave up on a guy with the level of production Bortles has had was probably Brees, for whatever that is worth. Interesting 3rd year, 11 TD's. 15 INT's. Year they bailed on him? Interesting. 24 TD's 15 INT's. Hmmm.
If we would have given up on say.....Mark Brunell after his 3rd year playing in the league--19 TD's, 20 INT's, I'm sure we would have regretted it as well.