The word from the Jaguars during their offseason program has been that quarterback Blake Bortles’ work with quarterback tutors Adam Dedeaux and Tom House in California early this offseason has resulted in positive changes to the mechanical flaws they felt hampered him during the 2016 season.
Bortles said Wednesday that he feels the corrections he made during that work have held up through the team’s work over the last two months, but that he still feels there are areas to improve ahead of what’s shaping up to be a crucial season for him. As a result, he’s going back to Cali for another round before training camp.
“I definitely think it will be more specific,” Bortles said, via the Florida Times-Union. “In February, March and April, it was mechanics-based and, ‘Let’s fix this. Let’s make this sustainable and remain consistent,’ whereas now, I’ll go out there with more descriptive things – here are some things I struggled with footwork-wise on this route, here is something that was new that I would like to rep. It will be more dialed-in.”
The Jaguars took their time before deciding to exercise their option on Bortles’ contract for the 2018 season, which sets him up to make $19 million. Unless Bortles is injured and can’t pass a physical at the start of the next league year, they can also walk away with nothing lost if the offseason optimism doesn’t add up to in-season results.
If it does, an extension that keeps Bortles in Jacksonville might wind up as the likelier outcome.