So far, the Jaguars have insisted they don’t want to push rookie quarterback Blake Bortles out there before he’s ready.
But coach Gus Bradley did leave the door open after the third-overall pick turned in an impressive debut last night.
The original plan was to let Chad Henne take all the work with the first offense until the fourth preseason game, but Bradley hedged on that last night.
“We’ll keep evaluating it,” Bradley said, via Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida Times-Union. We’ll see how it progresses — we’ll see how the fourth game goes. It could happen earlier, depending on how things go.”
That’s all a fan base needs to hear to whip itself into a lather, but Bortles himself wanted to take things slowly after his 7-of-11 for 117 yard performance (which included three dropped passes).
“I thought it was all right,” Bortles said. “It’s a process and it’s not going to happen overnight so there were some good reads and some bad reads, some good footwork and some bad footwork. It’s stuff I’ll continue to work on.”
Chad Henne’s just fine, and the Jaguars have maintained he was the starter. But that’s more about protecting Bortles and making sure he has time to develop properly than anything Henne himself has done to deserve the nod.
But the way Bortles played Friday night certainly appears to have given them something to think about.