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Goodnight, candy prince.
Former NFL quarterback Blake Bortles made it official on Wednesday, saying his retirement from skilled soccer. The quarterback rode a magical junior season at Central Florida — the place he was named the AAC Offensive Participant of the 12 months and received MVP honors on the 2014 Fiesta Bowl — to the highest of the NFL draft.
The Jacksonville Jaguars chosen Bortles third total within the 2014 NFL draft, and Bortles was the group’s beginning quarterback from 2014 by 2018. Throughout the 2017 season, Bortles and the Jaguars reached the AFC Championship Recreation, and on the highway in Foxborough the group was one half away — and one disputed knee, as I’m positive our pal JP Acosta will point out in a second — from representing the AFC in Tremendous Bowl LII.
Alongside the way in which, he even earned an unimaginable nickname. The BOAT:
With Bortles’ announcement, we thought we might share a few of our favourite Bortles recollections.
The 2017 AFC Playoffs
The 2017 Jaguars had been led by a younger, athletic and explosive protection. Studying it now nearly looks like scanning a Professional Bowl roster: Myles Jack, Jalen Ramsey, Calais Campbell, Yannick Ngakoue and A.J. Bouye are simply among the names that stand out.
As for the offense? That unit had an up-and-down season, particularly Bortles. He survived a coaching camp competitors with Chad Henne to win the beginning job, however his inconsistency continued all through the common season. For instance, after throwing for 4 touchdowns in a Week 3 win over the Baltimore Ravens, Bortles adopted that up with a sub-50% completion sport towards the New York Jets in a Week 4 loss.
The inconsistency continued into the playoffs. After the Jaguars survived a “thrilling” 10-3 sport within the Wild Card spherical, Bortles confronted questions on his play. He dropped this unimaginable quote: “It’ll in all probability by no means cease. There’s individuals who assume LeBron James sucks, so if that occurs, I’m positive there’ll all the time be individuals who all the time assume I suck.”
Bortles adopted that up with maybe two of his greatest video games of the 12 months, and even maybe his profession, given the stage. In Jacksonville’s Divisional Spherical win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on the highway, Bortles accomplished 14 of 26 passes for 214 yards and a landing — with out an interception — and added one other 35 yards on the bottom.
Then he went into Foxborough, and had the New England Patriots on the rope for 3 quarters. Finally, Jacksonville fell quick, however towards a Invoice Belichick protection Bortles accomplished 23 of 36 passes for 293 yards and a landing, once more with out an interception. He posted an NFL passer ranking of 98.5, the best of his three-career playoff video games.
— Mark Schofield
The attractive and hilarious doink INTs
Because the resident Jaguars fan, my ideas on Blake Bortles are this: there have been good occasions, just like the 2017 playoffs Mark talked about above. And even when he fooled the complete league by throwing 35 touchdowns in 2015.
Nevertheless, there have been a LOT of dangerous, dangerous, interceptions. These few are those that stick out to me.
He threw an interception towards the Chiefs…off of one other gamers’ helmet. I keep in mind precisely the place I used to be after I noticed this play. Sitting at house, completed up some homework from highschool calculus. Noticed him doink the ball off a Chief helmet, into one other Chiefs’ gamers palms, and fell to my knees.
He additionally threw an interception off one other participant’s foot, a play I’ll always remember:
He really was able to pulling off the unattainable, solely in a foul approach.
— JP Acosta
The Good Place
Okay, I do know this may look like a little bit of a cop out — however my fondness for Blake Bortles extends solely so far as his place as a punchline in The Good Place.
From randomly screaming “BORTLES!” to extolling the virtues at each flip, Jason Mendoza is likely one of the biggest characters in TV historical past. Bortles was the right quarterback for him to worship. Everlasting, misplaced optimism, blended with being overhyped and under-delivering. Jason’s character simply wouldn’t have hit the identical if the Jags had been good throughout the present’s run, or if Bortles was a standout passer on a horrible group.
I’ll without end be grateful to Blake Bortles for not being a terrific QB, as a result of it gave us one of the vital unimaginable recurring laughs in considered one of my favourite exhibits of all time.
Thanks, Blake Bortles. I’ll keep in mind you without end in a approach different failed QBs received’t be a blip on my radar.
— James Dator
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