Jacksonville Jaguars Fan Forums

The reason is simple, a fresh (unbiased) set of eyes. There's no doubt that David Caldwell has done a good job in bringing in talent, however, if he's "missed" on his most important draft pick in Blake Bortles, will he be able to swallow his pride, admit the mistake and move on in a timely fashion? This is a situation that doesn't get talked about enough, and I think it's the most crucial. We all would like to believe that Blake will shore up his mechanics, improve his accuracy, ball placement, and decision making, but what if he doesn't? It'd be borderline-insane to commit (long term) to a guy with so many fundamental flaws, as a huge Bortles fan this hurts to think about, but we have to be realistic and honest in our assessments if we ever wish to get over the proverbial "hump" as a franchise.

 

This situation is similar to the Gene Smith/Blaine Gabbert conundrum just a few years ago, I'm not trying to compare Smith to Caldwell or Gabbert to Bortles, it's obvious that Caldwell/Bortles are better, but the situation(s) are similar. Gene Smith forced his "handpicked" QB onto Mike Mularkery (there's no doubt the job wasn't as attractive because of the QB situation which likely limited the coaching pool), it turned out Gabbert wasn't the guy which ultimately cost Mularkey his job, my question is, how many coaches will be willing to attach their wagons to the Blake Bortles train? It reminds me of a comment Daniel Jeremiah (a guy I respect because he's well connected) made in the off-season, I'm paraphrasing here but was along the lines of "people around the league aren't as high on Bortles as fans/fantasy community", at the time I adamantly disagreed but what if he's right?

 

Blake's play so far this year hasn't exactly inspired confidence, if Blake continues to play this bad, it would be a disservice to the organization and the fans to not go into this off-season with an unbiased set of eyes, I'd like to believe David will be able to swallow his pride/ego, but history tells us GM's rarely do that. If Shad decides to keep David (this is the likely scenario), then it's incumbent upon Shad to make sure that David is looking at this situation with unbiased eyes. If Blake isn't the guy long-term, I don't think this organization is in a position to delay the inevitable. The best case scenario of course is Blake dispelling this situation by playing lights out the next 13 games, I have my doubts there. The absolute worst case scenario is Blake continues to play like crap, David forces "his" QB onto the next head-coach, Blake isn't the guy long term which results in David and our next head coach both getting the axe from Shad in 2017/2018, which has a variety of different consequences with one of them being (potentially) missing out on another QB in free agency (a Jimmy Garoppolo/Josh McDaniels pairing comes to mind) or in the draft. Blake needs to play better and play better NOW because a lot is on the line not only in the interim, but long-term as well.

4 more years of rebuild talk, nooooooooooooooo, I can't take this no more.

Quote:4 more years of rebuild talk, nooooooooooooooo, I can't take this no more.

 

I SHOULDN'T take 4 years because this team has more talent now than what it had when David took over.

Lets go find our version of Doug Pederson and Carson Wentz.

I think Dave is smart enough to know what works and what doesn't. He's evaluated our talent each year as well as the holes we had and plugged them the best he could. If Blake doesn't work out, I think he'll realize that and replace him.

That's one way to go...  But I think Caldwell could make a very good arguement that the inept coaching under Bradley caused BB5 to be developed poorly.

 

The fact that it's clear BB5 has regressed and is not getting better from last year shows that the coaching is bad.  Caldwell is not responsible for develpment of talent, just bringing it in.  So I think he gets a pass.  If after you bring in another coach and he fails after 3 or 4 years, then both Caldwell and that coach go and we're back to square one.

Premature line of reasoning IMO. 

 

Blake is fixable.

 

 We've seen him tighten up his mechanics before. Clearly and plainly -  he improved aspects of his game.

It wasn't all just receivers making him look good.  

He got better. 

Now he's regressed. 

 

 With a proper staff and training regimen  he can play that way more often. 

Quote:That's one way to go...  But I think Caldwell could make a very good arguement that the inept coaching under Bradley caused BB5 to be developed poorly.

 

The fact that it's clear BB5 has regressed and is not getting better from last year shows that the coaching is bad.  Caldwell is not responsible for develpment of talent, just bringing it in.  So I think he gets a pass.  If after you bring in another coach and he fails after 3 or 4 years, then both Caldwell and that coach go and we're back to square one.

 

I normally would agree with this assertion, what's different about Blake's "development" is he has fundamental problems that are extremely difficult to fix. I think his decision making will get better as he continues to play more, but his nearly impossible for guys to "fix" a throwing motion, a motion he's had ever since he's been throwing a ball. That motion has a direct result on his accuracy/ball placement, not to mention the elongated motion basically eliminates the short to intermediate passing game by taking defenders right to the ball.

yup, he'll never have Rodgers, brady, manning type release, footwork.  It will always be like Leftwich and Tebow.  They tried to have their motion changed and failed.  Time to find a new QB.

Quote:I normally would agree with this assertion, what's different about Blake's "development" is he has fundamental problems that are extremely difficult to fix. I think his decision making will get better as he continues to play more, but his nearly impossible for guys to "fix" a throwing motion, a motion he's had ever since he's been throwing a ball. That motion has a direct result on his accuracy/ball placement, not to mention the elongated motion basically eliminates the short to intermediate passing game by taking defenders right to the ball.

But he has such a big manly body

Quote:Premature line of reasoning IMO. 

 

Blake is fixable.

 

 We've seen him tighten up his mechanics before. Clearly and plainly -  he improved aspects of his game.

It wasn't all just receivers making him look good.  

He got better. 

Now he's regressed. 

 

 With a proper staff and training regimen  he can play that way more often. 

 

I don't understand how it's a "premature line of reasoning", especially considering if he continues (the point of the post to begin with) to play this poorly heading into the off-season. We've scene this exact scenario play-out over and over again, not only in Jacksonville, but Miami (with Ryan Tannehill) comes to mind, again, Blake can dispel this situation by improving his play over the next 13 games, but if he doesn't it's more than fair to question his long-term value to this organization moving forward. 

I'm in agreement with NYC and Anchorman

Josh Rosen 2018 and along with Jim Mora Jr.  Chaammmmppiiioonnshiiiipppp

Quote:That's one way to go...  But I think Caldwell could make a very good arguement that the inept coaching under Bradley caused BB5 to be developed poorly.

 

The fact that it's clear BB5 has regressed and is not getting better from last year shows that the coaching is bad.  Caldwell is not responsible for develpment of talent, just bringing it in.  So I think he gets a pass.  If after you bring in another coach and he fails after 3 or 4 years, then both Caldwell and that coach go and we're back to square one.

 

This is my concern

Quote:This is my concern

 

It's the nightmare scenario...  But you agree that you can't fire Caldwell along with Bradley, right?  Caldwell get's to hire another coach, and then ride or die with that coach.

Quote:It's the nightmare scenario...  But you agree that you can't fire Caldwell along with Bradley, right?  Caldwell get's to hire another coach, and then ride or die with that coach.

 

I agree that Caldwell deserves another head coach, because I think he's done enough in terms of bringing in talent to get another head coach. My one concern with keeping Caldwell is what I stated in the original post, if Blake continues to play like crap, will he (Caldwell) be completely honest and unbiased in his evaluation of Blake moving forward? I have my doubts, that's why (at least Imo) it's incumbent on Caldwell's superior (Shad Khan) to have that conversation with him, if Blake continues to play bad and they truly believe his fundamentals problems are fixable with proper coaching, then I have no problem with the status quo in 2017.

Quote:Premature line of reasoning IMO. 

 

Blake is fixable.

 

 We've seen him tighten up his mechanics before. Clearly and plainly -  he improved aspects of his game.

It wasn't all just receivers making him look good.  

He got better. 

Now he's regressed. 

 

 With a proper staff and training regimen  he can play that way more often. 

 

He needs to spend the entire off-season on the West Coast with Tom House

I mean, it's been 3 games....

 

Cam Newton has thrown one less INT, has been sacked 3 more times, and has taken a safety. Guess it's time for Carolina to cut bait too.

 

Let's just take a breather on the Bortles hate for a while.

Quote:I mean, it's been 3 games....

 

Cam Newton has thrown one less INT, has been sacked 3 more times, and has taken a safety. Guess it's time for Carolina to cut bait too.

 

Let's just take a breather on the Bortles hate for a while.

 

How is it Bortles hate? So I guess we can't be critical of players? Haha, theres nothign wrong with questioning the play of Blake Bortles so far this season, and it's not 3 games, it's been 30+ games.

Quote:I mean, it's been 3 games....

 

Cam Newton has thrown one less INT, has been sacked 3 more times, and has taken a safety. Guess it's time for Carolina to cut bait too.

 

Let's just take a breather on the Bortles hate for a while.

 

Don't be ridiculous, Cam is light years better than Bortles at this point, he's also played against (arguably) the two best defenses in football in Denver & Minnesota.