(08-17-2017, 11:47 AM)David4499 Wrote: You can sink or swim with BB5INT, but i'm grabbing a life raft. Henne is a much better option. He gives the team a veteran QB with lots of experience. When Henne was starting... the talent on this team was the worst in the league... I would like to see what a veteran can do with better players around him. I've seen what inexperience can do with talent around him. Not impressed.
Dude...Henne was given the starting job heading into 2014 and LOST IT in the 3rd game against the Colts for bad play. Bortles had his struggles, yes, but that's what happens when you have a coaching staff that didn't even look to help fix his mechanics – Bortles went and got help for that himself after 2014 from Tom House.
Enter 2015 - Bortles makes improvement and has a very good year, finish 1 TD pass shy of being league leader. His INTs went up by one, but that's because he threw more than every QB in the league. Despite that, he did need to continue working on his mechanics. Problem was, former OC Greg Olsen forbad him to go to California and work with Tom House. Instead, he was forced to stay in Jax and was told to try and improve here – which lead to 2016 being a poor season for him. People need to stop trying to ignore what the coaching staff did, or in Bortle's case, what they failed to do – which was help fix his mechanics and push him hard. Gus Bradley, Greg Olsen, and whoever was the QB coach, completely FAILED in the fact that when your QB screws up royally by throwing a pick-six,
YOU CHEW HIS @** OUT, NOT GIVE HIM A PAT ON THE BACK.
I don't care WHO you are –
you can't improve mechanics without a teacher/coach overseeing it, otherwise you won't know if you are doing it right. Tom Brady, for example, works on his mechanics EVERY YEAR. In fact, the best QBs work with someone on their mechanics in the offseason.
Bortles was finally able to get back to House and work on his mechanics. However, just like anything else that is newly installed, it needs to be put through its paces. That's what training camp is for – getting out the kinks, even if it looks subpar a couple of times. Bortles has to continue getting comfortable enough with his mechanics so that he won't fall into bad habits during the season. It is also on this new coaching staff to put the screws to Bortles if he makes a major mistake. So far, Coach Marrone is doing a far better job doing that in one camp than Bradley did his entire 4 years here.
All of that said, I do agree on this:
Bortles has to show good improvement this year. This is not up for debate. If he plays poorly this year, then it's time to move on and likely take a shot at one of the QBs in the 2018 NFL draft.
