Ready or Not, Jaguars Have No Reason to Rush Blake Bortles onto the Field

Blake Bortles sat and watched as the Jacksonville Jaguars offense salted away a 17-0 lead. And as long as the Jaguars are not aiming for instant contention, he should continue to do so. 

You see, it's not that Bortles isn't demonstrably better than Chad Henne, who went 24-of-43 for 266 yards and two scores in the loss. Even though preseason games need to be taken with a little skepticism, Bortles proved in those games that he could place throws that Henne could only dream of.

Bortles still has flaws to work out—his footwork was an issue at times, and he trusts his arm on some throws that it won't be able to cash in on against top-line NFL defensive backs—but the only way he's going to get better is to get playing time.

The problem is that the Jaguars, at this point, have no incentive to attempt to win. If we are to take Football Outsiders' Aaron Schatz's projections as a fair indicator of talent, the Jaguars come into this season with the second-worst team in the NFL. 

Even despite playing in the AFC South—the consensus worst division in football—the Jaguars were given the fourth-lowest chance in the NFL of making the playoffs. I tend to think Football Outsiders' projections are a little pessimistic on Jacksonville, especially on defense, but even if you apply subjective tweaking to it, there's no objective way to see Jacksonville as more than a live dog in the AFC South race. 

This is still, at its core, a team that is building for the future. That's why instead of trying to win free agency every season, they take measured stabs at players such as Toby Gerhart and Ziggy Hood.

The Jaguars are trying to build the kind of team that can hold the AFC South for a long time: None of their signings are purely win-now moves. Playing Henne now caps this team's upside, meaning it's in line for a better draft pick in 2015. 

AFC South Playoff Odds
Team	Playoff chance
Least Likely Playoff Teams
Team	Playoff chance
Indianapolis	48.6%
Tennessee	36.0%
Houston	32.9%
Jacksonville	19.0%
Jacksonville	19.0%
Cleveland	17.8%
Detroit	17.5%
Oakland	7.2%

Moreover, the Jaguars are trying to avoid recreating the Blaine Gabbert situation. 

Jacksonville has one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL at this point in time, especially on the interior. To the extent that the team can avoid it, it's going to benefit Bortles to not have his timing sped up by blitzers and defenders who get past the line. (That's something Bortles rarely had to deal with in the preseason.)

Gabbert is not the only example of this. David Carr is another player who suffered a beating early and could be anecdotally assumed to have suffered from it. Robert Griffin certainly looks the part of that player right now. I couch this in the term anecdotally because we have no real ability to recreate the kinds of studies teams have at their disposal right now.

There's no empirical proof, but it does make some anecdotal sense. 

Bortles is clearly the quarterback with more promise. The only way Jacksonville is going to get better is to play him.

I tend to disagree with what Jacksonville is doing here. I think the Jaguars are better off letting Bortles play, taking his lumps and seeing what they have. The true greats transcend their circumstances, and if Bortles isn't a true great, then Jacksonville should do what they can to figure out what he can do on the field as soon as possible. 

But they have an ethos at work. Jacksonville believes that Bortles sitting and avoiding time behind that offensive line is better for both Bortles and the Jaguars. As long as that remains the case, it's hard to fault them for sitting him—we simply don't have the studies that the Jaguars have. 

In a league where nothing is guaranteed tomorrow, it's hard for most fans and analysts to understand why the Jaguars seem to be playing completely for the future. But if you subscribe to the appeal to authority, there's a lot going right in Jacksonville these days. Maybe we shouldn't rush to conclusions just yet.

Rivers McCown is the AFC South lead writer for Bleacher Report. His work has also appeared on Football Outsiders and ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter at @riversmccown.