Every offseason the NFL Network puts out their NFL Top 100 players as voted on by the players themselves. And this time last year those players put Blake Bortles 44 spots higher than Derek Carr.
Derek Carr barely snuck in the NFL Top 100 after the 2015 season while Bortles landed at number 56. A year later, Carr was in the MVP conversation late in the season and Bortles isn’t even a lock to keep his starting job.
Bortles was horrendous is the Jaguars’ second preseason game at home against in the cross state Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Jags couldn’t put a point on the board playing most of the first half.
Through two preseason games, Bortles has completed 11 of 18 passes for just 81 yards and no touchdowns. He missed an perfect opportunity to for a touchdown in the game tonight when he didn’t step into his throw and the pass fell behind a wide open, streaking Allen Robinson. He missed Robinson again later. This time he stepped into his throw, but the balled was a wounded duck into the turf well short of him.
Bortles’ saw his numbers tumble last season when many seemed to expect his star to rise. His TD/INT ratio went from +17 in 2015 to +7 in 2016 and his passer rating went from an barely acceptable 88.2 to an unacceptable 78.2. Meanwhile Derek Carr had a +22 TD/INT ratio and a passer rating of 96.7, earning him the 11th ranking in the NFL Top 100 -- a jump of 89 spots. Bortles wasn’t ranked at all.
Not to mention Carr led the Raiders on 7 game winning drives with 5 game winning touchdown passes with a 12-3 record and the Raiders’ first trip to the playoffs in 14 years.
To be fair, after the 2015 season, a good argument could be made for Bortles being in the NFL Top 100 if only based on his numbers. But, first of all, 56 was way too high. Second of all, he and Carr were close enough in most areas that there’s no way one was 44 spots better than the other. It seemed kinda ridiculous then and it’s laughable now.
Fun stuff.
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