The noise surrounding Johnny Manziel has been so loud that it has obscured the other two quarterbacks taken in the first round of this year’s NFL Draft: Blake Bortles and Teddy Bridgewater.
While Bridgewater is in a bona fide quarterback competition in Minnesota and could very well end up beating out veteran Matt Cassel, Bortles — the No. 3 overall pick — will start the season on the bench in Jacksonville, behind journeyman Chad Henne.
How long Henne holds onto the first-string job remains to be seen. After Bortles shined in his preseason debut, completing seven of 11 passes for 117 yards, Jaguars coach Gus Bradley said Bortles still has a ways to go in his transition to the NFL and cautioned that his strong work came against second-string Buccaneers defenders using a four-man rush and cover-two.
“Now he’ll get more reps and probably face more pressure,” Bradley said, according to FOX Sports. “That will add to his body of work. We’re excited about the progress he’s made. But we just really believe in Chad that this year he has the chance to put it together and we’ll see where it takes us.”
Part of the Jaguars’ reasoning for bringing Bortles along slowly could have to do with their recent history. Three years ago, the team drafted Blaine Gabbert and rushed him onto the field to start by Week 3 of that season. Now Gabbert’s gone bust, and the Jaguars are back to square one with Bortles.
“He was a junior and he didn’t come out in the most conventional pro-style offense [at Central Florida],” Jaguars general manager David Caldwell said of Bortles. “There are a lot of nuances with the quarterback position that it’s going to take him a little while before we can really hone in those skills to where they’re second nature for him.”