Sage Rosenfels column: Jacksonville Jaguars face quarterback quandary
Sage Rosenfels is a former 12-year NFL quarterback who writes, does radio, and podcasts about the NFL and college football. Find him on Twitter (@SageRosenfels18).
The Jacksonville Jaguars didn't even make it to the third preseason game without their quarterback situation devolving into turmoil.
After three seasons with Blake Bortles at the helm, Jaguars fans - and even some players - are starting to show their impatience with their starting quarterback. Head coach Doug Marrone's press conference following their ugly 12-8 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the second preseason game was much more intense than most mid-August interviews. It wasn't hard to get a sense of the coach's frustrations with his starting quarterback situation.
The question for Jacksonville is what to do now, but at least the team hired someone who's not afraid to make that decision based on what he feels is best for the organization. Last winter, Tom Coughlin came aboard as executive vice president of football operations - and he'll have more power in his new role than he did as Giants head coach.
Despite winning two Super Bowls, Coughlin never received (or demanded) full authority over the roster. That's just not the way the Giants have ever, or will ever, do business. The owners of the Giants, the Mara and Tisch families, believe in a separation of powers: The head coach's job is to coach the players and the general manager's job is to fill the roster with talent.
This must have bothered Coughlin, even though it's something you didn't see in the press. Most head coaches want to pick the players they coach. After only seven months in Jacksonville, though, Coughlin will have his fingerprints on the most important roster spot: the quarterback.
And the mess he's currently looking at there is the Jaguars' own fault.
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Bortles' struggles are the elephant in the room. After an encouraging sophomore season in which his statistics made it look like he was a rising star in the AFC South, Bortles' level of play dropped significantly, and his mechanics have continued to regress. Much of the organization is losing, or has lost, confidence in him as a starter.
The Jaguars knew going into the season that Bortles would be under a tremendous amount of pressure to perform at a higher level. They knew that if he struggled early, their loyal fans would start to turn.
And still, all they did was re-sign backup Chad Henne and keep Brandon Allen, a sixth-round draft pick going into his second season as a pro. Rather than put pressure on Bortles with an upgrade behind him on the depth chart, Jacksonville stayed with the status quo.
I believe this was a huge mistake. Yes, Henne knows the offense and is well-liked on this team. However, because of Bortles' struggles, the Jaguars needed a legitimate competitor to push their starter, if not win the starting job outright. Henne isn't that competitor.
Coughin hasn't had to deal with this scenario in a long time. During his 12-year run as head coach in New York, Coughlin never experienced a season when he didn't have a true No. 1 quarterback on the roster. The biggest quarterback controversy he went through happened in his first year, when he started future Hall of Famer Kurt Warner for half the season before moving on to his first overall pick, rookie Eli Manning.
The Giants started the season 5-2, then lost eight in a row before winning their last game to finish 6-10. Switching from Warner to Manning cost the Giants an opportunity to make the postseason in 2004, but the vast majority of the organization was on the same page. This would be Manning's team going forward, and they were planning for the future. And in the long run, this strategy worked out well for Coughlin and the Giants.
Coughlin's first-year decision in New York was difficult because he had two starters on the roster. The decisions in Jacksonville will be much tougher because it looks like they have no legitimate starters.
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I have firsthand experience with the way Tom operates, having played for him. His no-nonsense approach allows him to make decisions based on what he feels is best for the entire organization, not what outsiders think. Both coaches and players appreciate this consistent message. The best players will play, and those who don't perform won’t last long.
This strategy is extremely useful, especially with an organization that's basically starting over. It puts all players on the same level, which pushes them to perform at their best every day.
If Bortles continues to struggle, the Jags may move on and go with Henne. I think this would be a mistake too. Henne could play better than Bortles, and the Jags could win a few more games, but he isn't the answer either - he's a solid backup who doesn't have the upside to be the starter in the years to come.
The unknown on the roster is Allen, who's played well this preseason. I recall watching Allen at Arkansas, and based on the Razorbacks' pro-style offense, I thought he looked like a future pro quarterback. During his three years as a starter, Allen helped rebuild the program's reputation, leading them to more wins each season.
I've always liked quarterbacks who make significant contributions to rebuilding a college program. They've experienced seasons of failure, and dealt with the adversity that comes with those loses. Once the program turns around, they understand what it takes to win, and they're a big part of it. Allen made his teammates better. Could he do the same in Jacksonville?
One of the reasons he wasn't drafted higher was because of his size. At "only" 6-foot-1 and 215 pounds, Allen is smaller than most NFL quarterbacks. I've always felt that this is one of the most overrated aspects of scouting NFL quarterbacks. Though it can help to be tall, shorter quarterbacks are frequently more athletic than the prototypical pocket passers coveted by general managers, and that's the case with Allen.
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He is quick and agile, and has a strong and accurate arm, at least from the few throws I've seen in preseason games. It also helps that Arkansas ran an offense that consisted of the the quarterback under center with traditional drop-back and play-action concepts. As simple as it seems, that experience gives Allen a head start of a year or two on his 2016 classmates who played in a college spread offense.
Before training camp even started, Henne beat out Allen for the backup job, which makes sense, given Henne's experience. But which quarterback of the three gives the Jaguars the most upside? In three-plus seasons, Bortles hasn't proven that he's headed in the right direction. Henne is a known commodity, but his value isn't as a starting quarterback. He is a solid, experienced backup.
This leaves Allen. Obviously the Jaguars are the only ones who know how Allen competes in practice, and how he handles the complexities of the game in meetings. One thing they don't know - because nobody knows - is how well he'd play when the lights come on during an NFL regular-season game.
Some players perform better in practice than in real competition. Others aren't pretty in practice, but know how to create enough plays to win games. Is Allen a gamer? This is the biggest unknown in the Jacksonville quarterback quandary.
The Jaguars need to find some sort of path forward, and quickly - it's rare that an NFL starting quarterback position is up in the air so late in the preseason. And under Coughlin, production is all that matters. If Bortles and Henne don't play winning football soon, we may get our answers about Allen faster than anyone probably expected.