Jaguars owner: Bortles is team's QB of the future

Blake Bortles may finally know where he stands with the organization that drafted him third overall in 2014.

Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan told Mark Long of The Associated Press that Bortles is the team's quarterback of the present and the future. Khan took a shot at all the critics who have doubted Bortles and the Jaguars for picking up his fifth-year option last offseason.

"Maybe we're not the biggest idiot on the football block," Khan said on Thursday. "When his option was picked up, it was like, 'What are these guys smoking?'"

Related: Like it or not, Blake Bortles has played well enough to keep his job

Despite the Jaguars picking up Bortles' extension in 2017, the team had expressed it was unsure of his talents going forward, spending much of the offseason program focusing on his mechanical issues and teasing a possible change to backup Chad Henne in the preseason.

The Jaguars had their best season since drafting Bortles this year as the quarterback limited his turnovers to a career-low 16 (13 interceptions and three lost fumbles) and are now preparing for their first postseason game since 2007.