The Jaguars coaching staff is working the Senior Bowl, but their latest losing season wasn’t a total loss.
They saw some good steps forward from quarterback Blake Bortles in his second NFL season. Bortles threw for 4,428 yards and 35 touchdowns while forming a strong partnership with wide receivers Allen Hurns and Allen Robinson in Greg Olson’s first year as the team’s offensive coordinator. Olson says the goal this offseason is to get Bortles “functioning at a faster, clearer level” in 2016.
“You need to make sure [the offense] is tailored to fit the quarterback if you believe it’s your guy, if it’s not a turnstile,” Olson said, via the team’s website. “We don’t have a turnstile thing going on at quarterback right now. We’re comfortable with Blake Bortles. We’re going to accelerate his development.”
Olson said the team gave Bortles a list of four quarterbacks, who he didn’t identify, and said he should get in contact to find out about their offseason routines.
“We structure every hour of his day during the season seven days a week, but what about the offseason?” Olson said. “What are those guys doing in the offseason? We said, ‘Ask these guys if they could do it all over again when they were 23 and they were going into their third season? What advice would they give you as far as your preparation?’ That’s the key.”
Bortles threw 18 interceptions and Olson would like to see that number come down. He’d also like to see Bortles get sacked fewer than 51 times next season, although that’s not all going to fall on the quarterback’s shoulders as the team needs to upgrade on the offensive line. Given the strength at receiver, progress on those fronts would have Bortles set to make another big jump in Year Three.