The end of an era is officially about to come to an end for the Jacksonville Jaguars, and by that we mean the Blake Bortles era. As expected, the team released the veteran signal-caller Friday, marking the end of their relationship with the former Central Florida Knight who was their starter for the past five years.
Bortles, 26, was the Jags’ third overall selection back in the 2014 NFL Draft and was the player hand picked by general manager Dave Caldwell to be the team’s franchise quarterback. Unfortunately, after that he could never lived up to that title due to sporadic play, going 24-49-0 over the course of 73 starts and accumulating a career completion percentage of 59.3 (2,632-of-1,561) for 17,646 passing yards, 103 touchdowns and 75 interceptions.
When looking back at his career, 2018 was the straw that broke the camel’s back as Bortles was benched in favor of backup Cody Kessler for four games in the process of the Jags taking a tumble from their 2017 season by going 5-11 in 2018. And while the Jags had several injuries on offense that didn’t help him this past season, it was clear that the things he could control like his mechanical development and development as a whole wasn’t where a fifth-year veterans needed to be. Still, it was a heck of a run while it lasted that certainly brought it’s good moments like his 2017 run, and it goes without saying Bortles will always be remembered in Duval in some kind of positive light.
Wherever his next journey takes him, we’d like to wish him well as he’ll always be a Jaguar deep down.
