I'm firmly in the camp that thinks Blake still has a shot at being a franchise QB.  I don't believe he will ever be Brady/Rodgers/Brees.  That just doesn't seem to be his style or skill set.

 

Like many on this board, I think Blakes ceiling is as a gunslinger who improvises like Big Ben.  In order for him to become that, there are two things that need to happen.

 

1.) He needs to fix his mechanics and have that fix last an entire season.  Last year he completely stunk up the place and I believe mechanics were the main culprit.  Even when he made the correct decisions in 2016, his poor accuracy, the main reason appearing to be very poor mechanics, caused interceptions and incompletions.  If he can tighten that up and improve the percentage of passes that are accurate it can be enough to win games.  NFL history seems to indicate that this is extremely difficult and maybe impossible but we are along for the ride at this point and we will either see a history making turn around or he will flame out as a starter.

 

2.) The team needs to play better around him.  

For all of his accuracy woes in 2016, he had some hero like plays that would have won games but receivers were unable to pull down what should have been easy catches.  The dropped TDs to Robinson and Hurns stand out for me here.  I understand he was wildly inaccurate way too often but when he drops one right on the numbers his receivers need to make the most of that situation.  Additionally the running game needs to keep defenses honest. I've seen all sorts of comments from the talking heads after the draft saying that our new running game will limit the number of passing attempts which will limit the chances Blake can hurt us.  While I don't think that is completely untrue, I don't think that is really the point.  The problem last year is that no team was afraid of the running game.  They didn't have to commit extra defenders to stopping it.

 

2a.) While we thought our defense was pretty good last year I argue we weren't as good as everyone seems to think.  When an opposing team had to get a score, we never seemed to be able to hold on.  It might just be the paranoia I've grown watching the Jags lose so often but it seems that when an opposing OC really needed to score, they had an answer for our defense.  This is where I really point to our previous coaching staff's failure.  I really feel that it was scheme or lack of creativity.  That tinhorns article from the end of 2015 comes to mind.  They knew how to beat our defense when it mattered.  They exploited it in a way that didn't tip their hand but when they really needed to beat us it was extremely easy.  I do believe in players not plays but I also think that if your scheme is just complete crap, good players can look bad.

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