(01-31-2018, 12:10 AM)TrivialPursuit Wrote: I am noticing that.

He's younger than Cousins and Alex Smith; yet everyone writes him off as garbage... like it's impossible for him to get better like both Smith and Cousins did. I respect toughness more than anything else in football - and Blake has it in spades. I confess I liked Byron Leftwich longer than I should have because he was a tough bastard.

The problem is that unless you have an elite franchise quarterback, your window for making noise in NFL isn't too long. As someone who was a Blake defender until this preseason, quarterbacks rarely make the level of jump Bortles would need to make at this point in their careers, especially with the numbers of starts he's already had. Smith is an exception to the rule and honestly I don't think anyone saw Alex Smith developing to the level of player he's been over the past five seasons after his start in the league. Cousins didn't really see much playing time, except for spot starts, since RG3 was their guy. Once he had an opportunity to be "the guy," it took him roughly a third of a season to start performing.

I think Blake can develop into solid starter in this league, but I'm uncomfortable gambling on what I feel would be limited returns while our defense is already built to win now. Add in the fact that good QBs almost never hit the open market, so if Blake doesn't pan out after this season, we're essentially going back to drafting one and hoping that a mid/late first rounder can quickly develop before we lose some key pieces of our defense.

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