It’s no secret that Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles struggled this season. After having a breakout sophomore year in 2015, Bortles took a big step back in his third year. There were a lot of reasons for this, one of the biggest being bad mechanics that he was discouraged from getting help on.
But whatever the reason, Bortles feels that he let his team down, and the guilt was difficult for him to deal with, according to Mike DiRocco of ESPN.
"It was hard to walk through the locker room and look guys in the eye," Bortles said. "I struggled with that, because I had felt as though I wasn't playing very well and had felt as though I was letting guys down in the locker room.”
There are several other nice quotes from Bortles in the article, but this is probably the one that best encapsulates it. It also shows what I think some of Bortles’ best qualities are, which is the ability to self-diagnose and the drive to correct his issues.
Look, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that we should 100% buy in to the fact that Bortles will correct his mistakes and become a franchise passer next season. His issues were real this year, and his play just wasn’t close to good enough, which is why the team should bring in another quarterback. However, if you're looking for some hope for Bortles going forward, his awareness of his issues and his desire to correct them should make you feel better.