Jaguars pick up Blake Bortles’ fifth-year option

According to Adam Schefter, the Jacksonville Jaguars have picked up Blake Bortles’ fifth-year option. 

The Jacksonville Jaguars entered the offseason with a lot of questions. A good number of them have been solved via free agency and the 2017 NFL Draft. One of the most important questions involved the future of quarterback Blake Bortles. According to Adam Schefter, the Jaguars will pick up his fifth-year option.

Bortles has not been impressive in his first three years in Jacksonville. Through his first three seasons, he has thrown 51 interceptions, including a league high 18 in 2015. Bortles threw 16 picks in 2016, tied with Eli Manning and Brock Osweiler for fourth in the NFL. The only three quarterbacks to throw more than him were Philip Rivers, Jameis Winston and Ryan Fitzpatrick. However, Bortles’ 2.6 percent interception percentage is noticeably better than those three quarterbacks.

He has to throw the ball a lot, which leads to interceptions. However, Bortles has done very little to warrant his fifth-year option. Especially since the NFL draft next year features some pretty good quarterbacks. The Jaguars could always cut him (fifth-year options are only guaranteed for injury), but that would have to be before the new league year starts in March of 2018.

It makes very little sense to exercise Bortles’ fifth-year option. They could franchise him at the same price even if he does very well and warrants a long-term contract. The fifth-year option wouldn’t allow that. It basically ties Bortles to them for the next two seasons when he’s done very little to prove he’s worth doing that for.

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The Jaguars are quickly improving their team. Hopefully they’ve improved their team enough around Bortles that he can start living up to his hype. He’s shown hints of brilliance, but those moments have been few and far between.