JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Entering year No. 5 the man who wears that number for the Jaguars is the unquestioned leader of their offense. For the first time in his career Blake Bortles spent the off-season improving instead of learning a new playbook.
“I feel good about personally where I am at as far as throwing the football I feel good about, and [I feel good] where I am at as far as the offense and mentally and having an understanding and good grasp on things,” said Bortles after first day of training camp on Thursday. “There is still a ton to learn, a ton mentally and physically to get better at. There always is. There is stuff every day that I have to fix and be better at.”
After only one day of training camp Bortles can already see a huge difference in the comfort level his young receivers have in their second year of the offense.
“Yes, it has been impressive,” said Bortles. “As far as Dede [Westbrook] and Keelan [Cole] and even Rashad [Greene] even thugh he has been here a couple years. Those guys getting in there and there were times last year where you kind of got that look in the huddle where it is like, ‘Hey, I have no idea what you were talking about.’ Looking at them this year, they are running out of huddle before I can finish saying the play because they know what they have. Everybody was good. We had not done signals in months, and we threw a couple out there today and Dede knew them all immediately. It is impressive what they have learned and what they retained.”
Bortles played much of last season with an injury to his right wrist. He had surgery in January and said that it’s a relief to finally be able to throw the ball without any pain.