(12-15-2018, 12:00 PM)TheO-LineMatters Wrote:

(12-15-2018, 06:04 AM)DragonFury Wrote: Here's a little secret: When you sign a quarterback to a $54 million contract a few weeks after he had two fantastic games in the playoffs against top level competition, you don't then start signing other players to directly compete against him. That would be sending all the wrong messages; "Here's $26.5 million guaranteed, and by the way, we still don't think you're going to be the man in future so we're going to pay/draft this other dude as well."

They should've never signed him to the extension. Two fantastic games or not, the guy had a history of erratic and uneven play throughout his career. Extension or not, when you have a QB like this, you better have a good backup plan. We had none. Message or not, by not signing some QB competition, we really screwed ourselves. If the QB you have is such a mental case that a little competition is gonna break him, you have the wrong QB. There is just no arguing this point. This is a QB driven league. Failure at that position leads to failure of the team in one way or another.

And how do you suppose to bring in viable competition? You're not going to spend a first round pick on a QB if you just spent $54M on your starter, not even at #29. And drafting one in the later rounds isn't going to bring in the immediate competition you want. And the team was tight against the cap so bringing in someone through FA wasn't going to happen either considering a QB like Case Keenum got an $18M/year contract.

When you commit to a #1 QB, you commit to them and you use your resources to build a team around him, not to bring in a backup plan. The only mistake in this whole ordeal was committing to Bortles in the first place, back when they choose to take up his fifth year option. Luckily, with the way his contract is structured and the high draft pick we have now, that mistake is easily remedied.

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