The Jacksonville Jaguars begin Phase 1 of their offseason workouts Monday. The key storyline this offseason will be the growth of quarterback Blake Bortles.
Last week, coach Doug Marrone told the Florida Times-Union that they needed to rebuild the quarterback's approach.
"We have to go back and build [Bortles'] foundation from the beginning," Marrone said. "We told him [in January] we wanted him to make sure his arm was ready to go because there will be an increase in reps, which will help him. I've been with Drew [Brees] in New Orleans, and obviously, he's a Hall of Fame-type quarterback and that's the way we approached it with him and with the team. You start with the foundation and you look to see how fast they can work through the foundation."
Bortles spent this offseason working on his elongated delivery with passing coach Adam Dedeaux. There also were rumblings last season that Bortles didn't approach his day-to-day work as diligently as needed from a franchise quarterback.
Marrone hopes his staff can coax a new mindset to go with tweaked mechanics in 2017.
The Jags haven't announced whether they will exercise the fifth-year option for 2018 on Bortles, which would pay him about $18 million and be guaranteed for injury. The team has until May 3 to decide on the option. The date of that decision means executive vice president Tom Coughlin and general manager Dave Caldwell could wait until after the draft and potentially take a rookie quarterback with the intention of moving on from the enigmatic Bortles sooner rather than later.