Quote:Hey guy, been off the boards for abou two months now. I have been off the grid for that time as well, so i'm a little behind all the news. I like the Bortles pick a little, but one thing scares me; everyone talks about his mechanics being so bad, does this not sound like another Gabbert to you? We fell in love with Gabs and his size/ceiling, this just seems eerily familiar. I am still going to argue till im blue in the face that Bortles will be a future HoF, just wondering if anyone else has thought this

No. Bortles is a far better QB than Gabbert coming out the gate, it's night and day. Gabbert wasn't good at all and he was supposed to sit and develop but JDR was a [BAD WORD REMOVED]. The mechanical issues we're talking about with Bortles have to do with his footwork and lower body consistency, but they're not fatal flaws or anything like they were with Gabbert. He could start right out the gate and be pretty serviceable, but in the long run it's just better for him to sit this year especially with the questions about the O-Line and two rookie receivers starting.

If you need to help understanding the difference between Gabbert and Bortles just look at the type of offenses they ran and how they performed when under pressure. This is one of the few cases where stats are a good indicator of the difference between two QBs.

Gabbert's stats:



Bortles's stats:



Bortles is far more accurate and played in an actual prostyle system (with college spread concepts) while Gabbert played in a completely spread offense where he threw and bunch of screens and short passes, as you can tell by the difference in their yards per attempt. Bortles is also a better rusher despite being bigger.

Not only does Bortles have a higher ceiling than Gabbert, he also has a much higher floor as well.

Another thing about Gabbert is that he regressed after his first full season of starting while Bortles got better. I'm not familiar with the situation that was going on at Mizzou at the time, but I don't think UCF had more talent than Mizzou regardless.

---