ESPN Fantasy projections have Blake Bortles with significantly less numbers in 2016

Many Jacksonville Jaguars fans expected Blake Bortles to take a jump in 2015 from a rough rookie season. I don't think many expected him to finish second in the NFL in touchdown passes and break a bunch of franchise passing records, but that's certainly what he did. In doing all that, he also became a sudden fantasy football star and a must start for a lot of the season, thanks to his ability to put up chunks of fantasy points.

You'd think that would make him a primo fantasy pick for the 2016 season, but ESPN's fantasy projections actually have him taking a step back, at least numbers-wise.

ESPN fantasy has @BBortles5 over-under projections at 27.7 TDs, 15.9 INTs, 3,817.5 yards. #Jaguars

— Mark Judson (@markfromjax) August 15, 2016

I saw some discussion on Twitter about these numbers not being great, but in all honesty they seem pretty fine to me. If you could promise me right now that would be Bortles stat line for the season, I'd take it in a heartbeat. Sure, the interceptions are higher than you want, but Bortles is likely going to always be a guy who throws double-digit interceptions and fans are just going to have to come to grips with that. It comes with being a risk taker.

In reality though, you'd like to see the interceptions come down a little more, but overall I would expect Bortles numbers to drop. If the team runs the ball during the season like they did in the first preseason game, especially, his numbers overall should decline and that's not necessarily bad.

The team last season was too reliant on the big passing play and Bortles' chunk stats. If they can balance things out and control the clock more, there will be less playing catch up and if the team can run the ball in the endzone, they'll be less overall passing touchdowns.