Blake Bortles pleased with Jaguars offensive line so far

The Jacksonville Jaguars offensive line was one of the most debated things for fans in the offseason, mostly because there was concern over protection of quarterback Blake Bortles. Bortles has been sacked 50+ times each season so far in the NFL, and while he hasn't shown any signs of being shellshocked by all the hits he's taken, that's not what you want from an offensive line. The team added Kelvin Beachum in free agency, shifted Luke Joeckel to guard and Brandon Linder to center. Fans only got one partial look at the full offensive line in the preseason and it was kind of a mixed bag.

On Sunday in their full time debut against the Green Bay Packers, the offensive line did a nice job in pass protection and about as good as they could do run blocking against a Packers defense that seemed to run blitz virtually every down.

"I thought they were awesome. I thought they really did a good job," Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles said on Wednesday when asked how he thought the line performed. "Really, Green Bay brought some different stuff and showed some different looks and I thought they were on top of it with their calls and communications and guys being in the right spot. There weren't many—for the most part schematically we weren't wrong at all. Maybe a couple of individual battles that got lost, but that comes down to me kind of having that mental clock and getting rid of the ball and stuff like that."

Bortles was only sacked three times on Sunday and one was just an overload with extra pressure. The big concern area, Luke Joeckel, actually did a nice job against Packers interior lineman Mike Daniels, though he did have a play where he got walked backwards into the quarterback that led to a sack.

If what we saw on Sunday from the offensive line is a "bad" performance, than the Jaguars offense should be much ore efficient this season and Bortles will spend a lot less time in the cold tub.