Cody Kessler to start at QB

[.Buzz]

 

[Tugboat]

6 hours ago, .Buzz said:

 

I mean yeah, he has to be done.  The only way you can bring Bortles back in any capacity, would've been as the starter...and there's literally no way you can do that now.  So he's done.

 

Now we just have to sit and watch, while we wait to get to the part of the year where we can actually make meaningful QB changes by getting a new guy (or 2).

[.Buzz]

I hate being in the position we're in, but man, if we would have kept trotting Bortles out there and didn't make any changes to the coaching staff I would have really little interest coming on a forum talking about them anymore. You can't go from "a whistle away" as TC stated to a SB to 3-8 and on a downward trajectory the next year with a ton of young talented players and not make wholesale changes.

Would have still kept watching the games as I do regardless of our record/performance because my body forces me to, but this place should see an influx of activity after the last several dreadful weeks I feel like. We can look towards the future at least

...I think.

[.Buzz]

1 minute ago, .Buzz said:

I hate being in the position we're in, but man, if we would have kept trotting Bortles out there and didn't make any changes to the coaching staff I would have really little interest coming on a forum talking about them anymore. You can't go from "a whistle away" as TC stated to a SB to 3-8 and on a downward trajectory the next year with a ton of young talented players and not make wholesale changes.

Would have still kept watching the games as I do regardless of our record/performance because my body forces me to, but this place should see an influx of activity after the last several dreadful weeks I feel like. We can look towards the future at least

...I think.

To piggyback on this, I'm definitely more happy than I would have been if Blake slightly regressed, we sit at 8-8, and are likely forced into another year with a QB that isn't going to take us places unless most everything else goes right with the team, that's for damn sure.

Wanted Blake to stay the pace/improve and continue with our SB window, or be able to move on with the potential to be in position to get a hopeful franchise level QB. Obviously preferred the former, but I'm happy we're not going to be stuck in purgatory.

[Tugboat]

55 minutes ago, .Buzz said:

To piggyback on this, I'm definitely more happy than I would have been if Blake slightly regressed, we sit at 8-8, and are likely forced into another year with a QB that isn't going to take us places unless most everything else goes right with the team, that's for damn sure.

Wanted Blake to stay the pace/improve and continue with our SB window, or be able to move on with the potential to be in position to get a hopeful franchise level QB. Obviously preferred the former, but I'm happy we're not going to be stuck in purgatory.

Was there really that much chance of getting stuck in "purgatory" with Blake?  I guess if he'd delivered a carbon copy of last year's performance maybe.  But it felt like last year was really the purgatory year.  This year was set up to either take a step forward, or take a step back...and make that decision pretty clearly either way.  After how well everything went around Bortles last year...it always seemed like even just playing the same way, probably wasn't going to be enough.

[.Buzz]

2 minutes ago, Tugboat said:

Was there really that much chance of getting stuck in "purgatory" with Blake?  I guess if he'd delivered a carbon copy of last year's performance maybe.  But it felt like last year was really the purgatory year.  This year was set up to either take a step forward, or take a step back...and make that decision pretty clearly either way.  After how well everything went around Bortles last year...it always seemed like even just playing the same way, probably wasn't going to be enough.

I would definitely say there was a chance for purgatory. If our defense doesn't regress in the most important categories (turnovers, sacks, pressures, etc.) and Fournette doesn't miss basically half the season there's a good chance a couple of our games where we barely got beat (PIT, IND, BUF in particular) are wins and not losses.

Sitting at 7-9 - 9-7 which I definitely think was very possible would most definitely be what I stated. Blake is missing wide open targets across the field, throwing wobbly ducks on easy passes 5 yards from the LOS, has largely stopped running like he used to the last several weeks it feels like, and based on what I've seen on TV and heard from fans on social media, looks disinterested/wasn't even speaking to people on the sideline just this last week. He may not be throwing his consistent pick six's, but this is pretty much the worst I've seen him or close to it. He just isn't being given the keys to throw it all over the field/allow for interceptions to be as persistent as he was back then. I don't think many expected him to fall off THAT hard, but maybe that's just wishful thinking/me.

[Tugboat]

2 minutes ago, .Buzz said:

I would definitely say there was a chance for purgatory. If our defense doesn't regress in the most important categories (turnovers, sacks, pressures, etc.) and Fournette doesn't miss basically half the season there's a good chance a couple of our games where we barely got beat (PIT, IND, BUF in particular) are wins and not losses.

Sitting at 7-9 - 9-7 which I definitely think was very possible would most definitely be what I stated. Blake is missing wide open targets across the field, throwing wobbly ducks on easy passes 5 yards from the LOS, has largely stopped running like he used to the last several weeks it feels like, and based on what I've seen on TV and heard from fans on social media, looks disinterested/wasn't even speaking to people on the sideline just this last week. He may not be throwing his consistent pick six's, but this is pretty much the worst I've seen him or close to it. He just isn't being given the keys to throw it all over the field/allow for interceptions to be as persistent as he was back then. I don't think many expected him to fall off THAT hard, but maybe that's just wishful thinking/me.

I mean, even if the defense had somehow held up in the face of that...i wouldn't call that purgatory though.  I'd call that, Blake sucking.

I guess i just looked at things differently going into the season where i expected there was little to no chance of things going nearly as well as they did last year for the team as a whole.  So they were going to need the offense to take another step forward, just to keep the team overall around where they were last year.

Basically, it seemed like it would've been extremely unlikely for this team to just "maintain" last year's level, without Bortles actually playing better.

 

And we've obviously seen now, what happens when things around him don't go as well.  We got our answer, in that he's completely fallen apart and taken big steps back.  That always kinda seemed like a potentially likely outcome to me.  That, or Bortles actually taking another step.  But not really Purgatory imo.  QBs that volatile don't just maintain, and the team was always going to take a step back the way it was built this year.

[JaguarCrazy2832]

What kind of cap hit/savings next year do we have if we cut Bortles? Isn't it like just 4.5M in savings?

[.Buzz]

 

[Adrenaline_Flux]

6 hours ago, JaguarCrazy2832 said:

What kind of cap hit/savings next year do we have if we cut Bortles? Isn't it like just 4.5M in savings?

Yes. ~9.5 if he's designated as a post June 1 cut.

[Speedyg]

I know Blake has really struggled but man, does anyone still remember his rookie preseason throwing darts and attacking down field? 

I can't help but wonder if he wouldn't have developed with a Nagy or Reid at the helm. Between Olsen who gave him awful advise and Doug/Nate who wanted him to manage games...

He came in as an aggressive gunslinger who took too many risky chances (that perhaps his talent can't cash) and will likely finish up as a shell shocked QB afraid to take chances while unable to complete routine throws. 

 

[Tugboat]

1 hour ago, Speedyg said:

I know Blake has really struggled but man, does anyone still remember his rookie preseason throwing darts and attacking down field? 

I can't help but wonder if he wouldn't have developed with a Nagy or Reid at the helm. Between Olsen who gave him awful advise and Doug/Nate who wanted him to manage games...

He came in as an aggressive gunslinger who took too many risky chances (that perhaps his talent can't cash) and will likely finish up as a shell shocked QB afraid to take chances while unable to complete routine throws. 

 

I don't know that he was ever the right type of QB to really thrive under a guy like Reid or Nagy.  The guys who really seem to thrive in those systems (especially what it's become these days) seem to be the really precision, natural throwers who have the accuracy to make a lot of easy throws efficiently.  I just don't think Bortles has ever had the natural accuracy and timing to be a fit in that kind of system.  Those are two things he's always struggled with.

Reid obviously also has a knack for masking QB flaws and he's made less than thriving fits look better than they are, and that may have been the case with Bortles too.  But it's hard to see him really thriving and letting a guy like Reid actually expand a playbook and do all the things he wants to do.  It would've been more a case of trying to figure out how to hide the same flaws the coaches here have tried to hide by relegating him to "game manager" and setting up easy throws for him to hit.