It’s a little later than they originally hoped, but the Jaguars will get back to work this week with the start of their offseason program.
While holding onto Doug Marrone as the permanent head coach keeps some continuity in Jacksonville, six straight losing seasons means that there’s also a need to find a better path than the one they’ve been on in recent years. One of the keys to finding that path is getting better play from quarterback Blake Bortles.
In an interview with the Florida Times-Union last week, Marrone said they hope to do that by going back to the beginning as Borles heads into his fourth NFL season.
“We have to go back and build [Bortles’] foundation from the beginning,” Marrone said. “We told him [in January] we wanted him to make sure his arm was ready to go because there will be an increase in reps, which will help him. I’ve been with Drew [Brees] in New Orleans and obviously he’s a Hall of Fame-type quarterback and that’s the way we approached it with him and with the team. You start with the foundation and you look to see how fast they can work through the foundation.”
The Jaguars haven’t said whether they will exercise their 2018 option on Bortles’ contract, which would pay him $18 million and would be guaranteed in the case of injury only. They have until May 3 to make the call, which isn’t much time to see how things are coming together. That may make it likelier that Bortles will play out the final year of his contract while the Jaguars hope they aren’t going back to square one again next year.
