Blake Bortles ready to compete for the Jaguars, comfortable sitting if needed

The Jacksonville Jaguars picked their guy with the No. 3 overall pick in UCF quarterback Blake Bortles. It was a shocking pick to say the least, because not many had the Jaguars picking a quarterback, let alone Bortles out of all of them. We found out later Bortles was Dave Caldwell's guy all along, even though it's likely Bortles won't start out of the gate.

Bortles is fine with not starting out of the gate as well, humbling admitting he knows he has things to work on.

“We talked about it," Bortles said at his press conference, about sitting early in his Jaguars career. "They obviously have Chad Henne and I obviously have things I need to work on. I’ve never looked at an NFL playbook so there’s going to be challenges that I’m going to have to overcome but I can’t wait to get there and work to be the best I can be and start competing.”

Bortles will take part in the Jaguars rookie mini-camp this upcoming week, which will be open to the public, but he's got to dive into an NFL playbook first and foremost.

“I think obviously the mental aspect. I’ve never looked at an (NFL) playbook so I have to get in there and learn everything," Bortles said Thursday evening. "I still have to work on footwork and continue to make that better and consistent and be able to throw on a platform. That is something I look forward to continuing to work on as well as everything else. You can always polish every aspect of your game.”

While I don't it weighed at all into Dave Caldwell's decision to pick Bortles third overall, it's always neat to end up drafting players who grew up going to Jaguars games as kids. I don't know if Bortles necessarily grew up a Jaguars "fan" or not, but he did attend a few games as a kid.

“I grew up going to games. I have probably been to five or six games in my life," Bortles said. "Last year I watched anytime there was a game on TV. Obviously some days we were in getting treatment or watching film but being in Orlando the Jags are always on. I did watch many games the last few years.”

Bortles also worked out with Jaguars wide receiver Cecil Shorts over the summer in California, so he's already familiar with one of his primary offensive targets headed into the season.