Plenty of questions were raised about whether the Jaguars reached in making Blake Bortles the No. 3 overall pick of the 2014 NFL Draft. But nearly two full seasons later, Bortles' play has begun answering the critics, and NFL Media senior analyst Gil Brandt ranks him at the top among QBs selected in the past two drafts.
Jacksonville is just 5-8 on the season, but Bortles has thrown for 250-plus yards nine times in his second season as one of the NFL's most improved passers.
"Here's a guy that didn't start many games at all in college. The magic number is 30 starts in college. He started less than that," Brandt said. "But one of the best things (Jacksonville) did was to hire Nathaniel Hackett, a young guy who was at Buffalo as a coordinator and is a very, very good technician when it comes to teaching quarterbacks how to fundamentally play football.
"Anybody that goes from 11 touchdowns a year ago to 30 touchdowns now, and the season's not over yet, that tells you a lot. I think he has athletic ability that you want, and he's not one of these guys that gets too high one day and too low the next. I like his demeanor. I like his size."
Bortles threw 17 interceptions as a rookie, but this year, he's thrown four fewer in 26 more attempts.
Brandt said separating the next three quarterbacks over the same span -- Derek Carr, Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota -- isn't easy, noting that Carr could easily be the No. 2 in the group, and that Mariota is difficult to judge because he needs more help at wide receiver. Winston, meanwhile, is really putting in the time.
"I don't know if there's a harder working guy than Winston. They say he's at the office working every morning at 6 o'clock, so the guy has great work habits," Brandt said.
While Winston and Mariota are on a sharper learning curve as rookies, Bortles and Carr have already passed some of the growing pains of any young NFL quarterback. Bortles and the Jaguars remain only one game off the pace in the AFC South, and close the season against three teams with losing records: the Falcons, Saints and division rival Texans. Bortles is 0-3 against the Texans in his career, and the two teams will meet in Week 17 in Houston.
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