In today's world, all of us want to see an immediate return on big investments. The Jaguars invested the No. 3 pick into UCF quarterback Blake Bortles back in 2014 and the return was not what everyone was expecting.
Everyone wants to critique the accuracy, which is fair, but to label him a bust and to think that he can't earn another starting job in the NFL is short-sighted.
Yes, he only had one winning season with the Jaguars. Yes, he only completed 60 percent of his passes (barely) twice in five years. But Bortles was also on his back much of the time, enduring nearly 200 sacks while in Jacksonville. He also had four different offensive coordinators during his five years in Jacksonville and spent most of his time under an historically awful head coach in Gus Bradley, who went 14-48 and had the worst winning percentage (.223) of any NFL coach in history who has coached at least 60 games.
You know who was beloved by his fan base despite a poor completion percentage? How about No. 1 overall pick Michael Vick of the Atlanta Falcons? Vick was highly inaccurate during his time in Atlanta but because he could run and the Falcons also had Warrick Dunn, the team was moderately successful and Vick was beloved in Atlanta until his career went to the dogs.
You can make the argument that the Jaguars were a bad fit for Blake coming out of college but he played the hand he was dealt. The team around him, outside of the last couple years, was never very good. When he did have a good running game and defense, he led the Jaguars to the AFC Championship game.
Blake Bortles is labeled a bust for being the third overall pick and having a 24-49 record in Jacksonville. A lot of that is on Blake, but a lot of it is not. We know who Blake is and the Jaguars did not put the right pieces around him like the Falcons did with Michael Vick.
This is on the Jaguars as much, if not more, than Blake Bortles.
The question is did the Jaguars ruin Blake Bortles or can he be rehabilitated after the confidence-sapping five years he suffered through in Jacksonville?