Quote:Well, from what I saw from Henne, minus the miraculous 1st half against the Eagles (which we may never see from Henne again)  Henne wasn't ready to be a functioning NFL QB either.

 

Henne was absolutely GOD-AWFUL out there and showed no signs of improving AT ALL.

 

Gus really had no choice but to put Bortles in, especially considering the way he played in the preseason.

 

Henne's GOD AWFUL play forced Gus' hand to play Bortles, that's just the way I see it.

 

The Jags were on pace to lose to the clots 60-0 if Henne had stayed in at QB.

Gus had a choice.  There's always a choice.  He decided to bow to the wishes of the fans who were howling for Bortles to start regardless of whether he was ready or not because he couldn't be any worse than what they were seeing from Chad.  Of course, once they discovered that the rookie was going to struggle as badly as he did, they turned on him too, so it's pretty much status quo around here. 

 

I don't care how "GOD AWFUL" Henne was.  That doesn't make Bortles more ready for the job.  There were several factors that assured no QB was going to be successful this year. The line was still not fully determined until the week of opening day.  Even then, it was in a state of flux with a guy coming back from a season ending injury at LT, a RT who was lacking the experience, a rookie guard, and a marginal center.  Within 3 weeks, the team had made multiple changes to the line to address the struggles we saw in the first couple of games. 

 

Meanwhile, there was no running game.  The FA brought in to help with that was hurt.  The guys backing him up were marginal at best and still needed time to develop behind a line that couldn't create running lanes if their lives depended on it.

 

We trotted out 1 veteran receiver and a host of rookies.

 

Nothing about the above scenario screamed success even if you had a veteran presence better than what Henne had, and quite frankly, there wasn't a whole lot available to this team that would be considered even remotely better than Henne in order to upgrade the backup position.

 

Anyone with a clue knew this offense was going to struggle this year.  They also recognized that there was potential risk to putting the rookie in before he was ready because he was in the midst of making significant changes to his mechanics.  Putting him in before he was ready would assure he'd regress because once he was the starter, there wasn't time to continue that development.  His focus would be on the game plan each week.

 

The naysayers who just wanted Henne out got their wish, and what have they done since?  They've hammered every aspect of the offensive struggles this team faced, as if this was somehow a surprise to them when it happened. 

 

The hope is that, unlike Gabbert, Bortles isn't damaged by the pounding he took as a rookie.  He didn't appear to be shell shocked, but we'll have to wait and see.  Ultimately, in my opinion, I still think the best approach was to wait to insert Bortles into the game plan.  They had their hand forced and weren't able to do so, and the rest is history.  Hopefully it doesn't spell the ruination of another QB. 

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