(08-22-2017, 03:22 AM)BritJag Wrote: Makes you wonder why they even picked up the 5th year option in the first place. A curious off season it has been.

So Meister, to you, the days of Bortles in Jacksonville are really really numbered? You are in essence saying that if he doesn't win the job on Thursday he could be on his way out by final cuts?  A telling but sad thought.

Too many uncertainties. We can all agree that we didn't secure the coveted off season championship trophy this year. A sign of big things for 2017. We are going to surprise the league. Watch.

Indeed, I was pretty vocal about the team not picking up his option for several reasons but was ok with it when they did because I understood why.  It was for flexibility on ARob.  However, who could have imagined that Bortles might lose the starting job going into week 1 to Henne or somebody on the street?  If that happens, the 5th year option makes cutting Bortles the smart thing to do versus had we not picked it up he could have still been the back up in his final year here and if he was forced to come back into the starting line up for whatever reason he would have had that one last opportunity to make us tag him next year.  The 5th year option in this scenario is providing us with less flexibility on Bortles.  It's also made him untradeable because who in their right mind would trade to evaluate him knowing that if he gets injured you're paying him $19 million next year.

Regardless, if he loses the starting gig, the likelihood of him ever being the guy here is almost nil.  But the lesson here is: flexibility regarding your QB trumps flexibility on your WR and the franchise tag gives you more flexibility than the 5th year option.  Only if Blake had played well this year would we have lost the flexibility on ARob and Blake playing well enough to get tagged would have been a good problem to have.

You just have to wonder who is making these decisions.  I get that the buck stops with Coughlin, but did he make the mistake or agree with the decision or is he letting Caldwell hang himself to get him out of here?  I'm sure we'll never know, but that won't stop people here from pretending they do.

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