JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Now that Blake Bortles has signed a contract extension to remain in Jacksonville the next order of business is the status of his right wrist injury. During Saturday night’s conference call with reporters the Jaguars quarterback provided an update on his health.
“I had a partially torn ligament on the outside, which he repaired and then on the inside or right on top was inflamed and he cleaned up,” said Bortles who had wrist surgery last month. “It was a scope or more of a cleanup type of procedure and four-to-six weeks is what he said [for the rehab]. It has been four weeks now. I threw Monday, Wednesday and Friday of last week in a limited capacity, and I will continue that program through the six week mark and then I should be good to go and 100 percent.”
Although Bortles said he didn’t come close to missing any games the injury did cause him to appear on the injury report every week during the 2017 season.
“I think I got three cortisone shots and a PRP shot,” said Bortles. “The PRP shot didn’t do anything at all and by the third cortisone shot they were starting to last less and less, so by the end of it they didn’t want to do anymore cortisone shots. Let’s make it through the season and get it fixed and get it right after the year.”
A little over a month after the surgery Bortles has already begun throwing and is headed back to California, where he spent a large portion of last off-season, to work with personal quarterback instructors Tom House and Adam Dedeaux. Their plan is to take things slowly for the next two weeks to get to the six-week mark of the rehab and be 100 percent cleared.
“We came up with a program here that [Head Athletic Trainer Scott] Trulock and us talked about as far as controlling the amount of throws, the velocity, the yardage and doing that,” said Bortles. “That will take place for the next two weeks, and then ideally I will be cleared and back to my normal throwing program four days a week. Trying to get everything tuned up and ready for OTAs.”