Jags GM: Bortles battled through 'dead arm' last year
The Jaguars are counting on significantly better play from Blake Bortles as the quarterback enters his second season in the NFL. With that in mind, Bortles had spent much of the offseason refining his mechanics. But according to general manager Dave Caldwell, improvement may come simply from a return to health.
Caldwell said Bortles suffered from a "dead arm" late in the season, limiting his ability to practice and affecting the way he was able to throw during games.
"People don't realize that as you look later in the season, he was on injury report," Caldwell told USA TODAY. "You've just got to do what you've got to do to survive. It wasn't anything that was ingrained in him (mechanically). He knew he was doing it. But in order to drive the ball 15 yards, there were some things that he needed to do to get the velocity on the ball."
Nearly a year and a half of throwing between his last season at Central Florida, the predraft process and his rookie season took a toll on Bortles' shoulder. Now, after allowing time to recover and honing his throwing motion with quarterback guru Tom House and NFL player Jordan Palmer, Bortles is beginning to show the Jaguars the ability that prompted the team to select him third overall in the 2014 draft.
"We know, come game day, he can do the stuff — the off-schedule things, the out-of-the-pocket stuff — that's part of the reason we drafted him," Caldwell said. "But now that this is looking the way it's supposed to, it's encouraging."
(h/t USA Today)
Photo credit: Rob Foldy/Getty Images
