Quote:This offseason Blake went out of his way to work with an expert on his throwing motion and mechanics, and we saw the results of that effort from the camp practices, scrimmage and preseason. Again, preseason can't be relied on to show much more than future potential as teams don't game plan, etc, however in his last two starts he converted 75 percent on the team's third down situations. In a given season, you almost never hear of a team converting even half of their third downs. This preseason Blain was so sharp with his passes that his only misses were drops. He didn't throw passes away...they didn't hit the ground...they weren't intercepted. Pass after pass landed right smack in receivers hands. He also showed us that he understands how to look off defenders to help his receivers get open.


 

In week one we had three more cases of Blake nailing receivers right in their hands only to have them dropped. Blake doesn't shy away like Gabbert, and he's shown the ability to feel and avoid pressure, including the ability to take off and run when there's an opening and everyone is covered. He's also shown the ability to make virtually every throw although his fades this past week were a bit questionable. I also like how when you give Blake time, he knows it and will go through his progressions to see if someone is coming free deeper downfield. He doesn't just check down constantly like Henne, he doesn't run from ghost pressure like Gabbert, and he doesn't have a long wind-up like Leftwich. I was surprised to see some of Blakes deep passes sail on him, although some of his deeper throws were strikes, and he was nailing all of his shorter passes which was a bit of an issue with him last year. Finally, unlike Mariota, Blake throws the ball with a textbook arc allowing his passes to land with touch, and his arm is strong enough to get the ball deep if need be. We're talking about a tall, tough qb whose passes were timed out of college at 57 mph which ranks right up there with the better qbs in this league.

 

So in reality you want to say that Bortles' list is something like:

 

Better than Henne, Gabbert, Leftwich (you could also say this about almost any NFL QB)

Looked good in preseason

Threw the ball at 57 mph in college

He throws a great deep ball and doesn't rely on checkdowns (4.6 YPA last game vs Mariota's 13)

 

Maybe you're right and the Jags do have their franchise QB. 

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