[OT-ish] Jacksonville Jaguars name QB Blake Bortles starter over Chad Henne

Submitted by BoFlex on

There was some talk that Chad Henne had won the open competition this offseason, and was going to be a Week 1 NFL starter.

The Jaguars have named Blake Bortles the starting quarterback. It's a surprising turnaround for a player whose... https://t.co/q3kVkbMXc7

— Michael DiRocco (@ESPNdirocco) August 26, 2017

Craptain Crunch

August 26th, 2017 at 9:53 PM ^

This makes sense for only one reason. When Blake chokes and is taken out allowing for Chad to come in and take the starting job there won't be any controversy. Jaguars are doing this on purpose. 

stephenrjking

August 26th, 2017 at 9:53 PM ^

The talk is that the job was open. Whether that was real talk or just motivation, the word on the last game was that Henne was fine but unspectacular. Bortles was decent with the backups.

If the guys are anywhere close it makes sense for the Jags to give Bortles one last try, at this point. Once it's clear he's not the guy there's no reason to have him on the roster--Henne has a backup contract and skillset. If Bortles shows some growth this year, they can re-evaluate, or they can cut him loose.

It would've been nice, but "Jaguars starting QB" is as temporary of a job as you can find in the NFL right now anyway. Henne has a good job of getting put in after (or during) a bad Bortles game.

The Fugitive

August 26th, 2017 at 9:57 PM ^

A few weeks back, some guy on Twitter had a stat that Blake Bortels has thrown 80 touchdown passes to 9 different teams. Made me chuckle.

May as well start Blake and try for a top pick to replace him with.

cletus318

August 26th, 2017 at 11:51 PM ^

When you have to subpar options, the high draft pick will always get the benefit of the doubt. Seems like Jacksonville was looking for every reason to give Bortles the nod.

Solecismic

August 27th, 2017 at 3:20 AM ^

I guess they need to find out if the former #3 pick is worth signing to a $100 million contract extension heading into his money season...

How did I type that with a straight face?

The NFL is quarterback desperate right now, and pocket passers are back in vogue. Maybe Henne will get another look, though it was his failings that got Bortles a shot so early.

LSAClassOf2000

August 27th, 2017 at 8:27 AM ^

Someone threw out an interesting stat about Bortles the other day - he's thrown about 70 touchdown passes in his career so far, but only five of them have been thrown with the Jaguars actually in the lead. 

Yeah, that's a promising statistic for your starting QB, even though there's something about the Jaguars as a team thrown into it.