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The Jacksonville Jaguars have huge salary cap consequences from cutting Blake Bortles today — they’ll be charged $16.5 million against the 2019 salary cap by cutting him but they’ll get a cap credit for 2020 based on any earnings elsewhere, up to $6.5 million.
Jaguars release of Blake Bortles is not a post-June 1 designation, per source. The cap charge will be $16.5 million, but he'll be off the books for 2020.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) March 14, 2019
Jags also will get a cap credit for 2020 based on any 2019 Bortles earnings elsewhere, up to $6.5 million.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) March 14, 2019
Cutting Bortles waswas expected by quite a few this offseason, despite the fact that Bortles was fresh off a new deal last offseason.
Following a 2017 NFL season that had the Jaguars on the door step of the Super Bowl, the team gave Bortles a new deal in the hopes that the light had finally come on. Despite a quick start to the 2018 season, the wheels seemed to come off against the Kansas City Chiefs and never got right thanks to massive injury hits on the offensive side of the ball.
Bortles was benched mid-season in favor of Cody Kessler, who didn’t fair any better, and it became clear the Jaguars were going to be moving on.
Bortles was given one last start in the final game of the season and predictably it ended in disaster. He finished the 2018 season with 13 passing touchdowns and 11 interceptions, more in line with what his numbers had been through his career outside of 2015.
Goodnight, sweet prince.