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Blake Bortles mechanical improves just a piece of Jaguars offense puzzle

Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports

Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles had a rough follow up to his 2015 season, to be kind about it. All through training camp and most of the preseason the Jaguars quarterback looked just fine. Even in Week 1 against the Green Bay Packers he wasn't the total train wreck he ended up being mid-way through the season. There were a lot of factors for his struggles, but the one that became most prominent was his throwing motion, reverting back to the long looping motion he had his rookie year, which he improved on in 2015.

It was back and it was a big reason he struggle. Not necessarily the motion itself, but the fact that his motion had fallen apart and he struggled to correct it in-season, because that's not really an in-season fix. Many speculated why Bortles didn't go back to Tom House's quarterback camp in the offseason, but come to find out the Jaguars former offensive coordinator Greg Olson didn't really want him to.

"The first week, it wasn't pretty," Bortles told The Florida Times-Union before his charity golf tournament Sunday at the King & Bear. "It didn't look good. Part of trying to change things is it won't be great [right away]. But we were able to hash it out."

This offseason however, Bortles is back working with House and he's confident that there will be significant improvement on the team. He knows it has to improve not only for the Jaguars to have success, but for his long term future not only in Jacksonville, but in the NFL.

"I'm confident with what I've done this offseason and that I'll be able to come help this team be as good as we possibly can be," Bortles told Mike DiRocco of ESPN. "Everything involving the contract, that's up to them. I look forward to playing football."

The contract Bortles is referring to is the fifth-year option on his rookie contract, which the Jaguars have curiously yet to make a decision on. Many expected the Jaguars to bring in competition for Bortles this offseason through free agency, but the reality always was that Bortles is going to be your Week 1 starter barring a significant trade. The team could pick a quarterback early in the draft, but it's clear they want to be absolutely sure Bortles is not the guy, so they're going to give him every chance to fail. The team has until about a week after the NFL Draft to pick up the option, so it will be interesting to see if they make any moves at quarterback.