tweets + other bits … 3/15 … including on Bortles visits Rams

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1VRvNtz_Wg

zn wrote:

The Moving the Chains guys were saying that Bortles would be a good fit in LA for a few reasons:
1) Working under McVay would help Blake remake his career… clean up bad habits and rebuild confidence.
2) Blake can move in the pocket, he can roll out and under McVay, develop his play action game.
3) If he works out as a good reliable back up and remakes his career, he could be a good trade asset… (see Jimmy G.)
4) He has played well at times, played in big games and has a track record unlike Mannion.

The first three reasons are Wishful Thinking, and the last one is meaningless. His track record is…he’s not a good player. You know…if it was the other way around, #4 would be “We know how Bortles is…but Mannion has upside since he hasn’t had a chance.

I bet they don’t sign him until after the draft, if at all. He might be a better backup than Mannion, but only if he signs for something in the same ballpark as Mannion cost.

InvaderRam wrote:

zn wrote:

“[W]e’ve talked a little bit about the flexibility that Michael Brockers does give you to play nose and five,” Snead said. “Then it gets into, do we add anybody else during free agency or the draft? And what his flexibility allows you to do is to pick the best player and not necessarily, ‘We’ve got to have a nose tackle,’ because, hey, maybe the best five technique will move down. So it does give you some flexibility and that’s what we are going to do there.”

that settles it.

it’s either lawrence or tillery with the first pick.

I’ve never understood the Rams’ seeming reluctance to stick a true hogmolly in the middle, especially given their relatively small linebackers.

Someone like Lawrence would take up serious space, open things up for Donald, and protect the linebackers too — give them room to move.

Donald is likely the best D player in the league, and maybe by a good margin, but he obviously can’t do it all himself. He needs help. A 6’4″, 342 immovable object would go a long, long way in providing that.

Phillips, of course, doesn’t run a traditional 34, but the current personnel on the D require a traditional hogmolly like Ngata or Wolfork in their primes. They would be the pivot point for the D and set the table for everyone else to run amok.

And, because I’m a very greedy fan, I want that plus a tall, fast-twitch, scary-fast edge rusher to pair with Fowler too.

This year, the draft probably only gets the Rams one of those things. DT is a great place to start.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000001022931/article/former-jaguars-qb-blake-bortles-set-to-visit-rams
Former Jaguars QB Blake Bortles set to visit Rams

Two days later and roughly 3,000 miles away, Blake Bortles seems to have found himself a suitor.

Bortles, who was released by the Jacksonville Jaguars on Wednesday, is scheduled to visit the Los Angeles Rams on Monday, NFL Network’s Michael Silver reported, per a team source, on Friday evening.

The former first-round pick could be a veteran backup for starter Jared Goff.

The No. 3 overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft by the Jaguars, Bortles went 24-49 as a starter in Jacksonville. He’s coming off a forgettable season in 2018 in which he was 3-9 as a first-stringer with 2,718 yards passing, 13 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. Still, he’s a quarterback with five years of starting experience who helped the Jaguars to the AFC Championship Game in 2017, which is a fine resume for any reserve QB.

Goff started all 16 games during the Rams’ run to the Super Bowl, throwing all but seven of the team’s passes in 2018. Punter Johnny Hekker tossed four passes and backup QB Sean Mannion threw three.

Mannion is now a free agent. Currently, the Rams’ only other quarterback on the roster is Brandon Allen, who coincidentally is also a former Jaguars draft pick.

So Bortles might be heading to a title contender.

Perhaps it’s fitting. Bortles was released by Jacksonville after it signed former Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles and now he might be backing up the quarterback of the Super Bowl runner-up.

—————————————————————————————

ESPN.com: NFL
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Jags cut QB Bortles loose after signing Foles
By Michael DiRocco

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jaguars waived quarterback Blake Bortles on Wednesday, cutting ties with the player they drafted third overall in 2014 after five tumultuous seasons, just hours after signing free-agent quarterback Nick Foles.

The move will cost the Jaguars $16.5 million in dead money but also save the team $4.3 million against the salary cap in 2019. Bortles was guaranteed to make $6.5 million this season and was due a $1 million roster bonus on the fifth day of the league year.

Cutting Bortles was expected after the team benched him for backup Cody Kessler and fired offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett on Nov. 26, one day after the team lost at the Buffalo Bills. Bortles threw for 127 yards and a touchdown with two interceptions in that game, one week after throwing for 104 yards in a home loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Bortles sat out the next three games, played in relief of an injured Kessler in the Jaguars’ victory at the Miami Dolphins in Week 16 and started the final game of the season. He threw for 107 yards with an interception in the Week 17 loss at the Houston Texans. Bortles finished his fifth season completing a career-high 60.8 percent of his passes for 2,718 yards and 13 touchdowns with 11 interceptions in 13 games.

Bortles had an up-and-down career with the Jaguars. He set single-season franchise records in passing yards (4,428) and passing touchdowns (35) in his second season, but he followed that with a disastrous 2016. His mechanics — especially his elongated delivery — deteriorated. He threw 16 interceptions (including three pick-sixes). He was admittedly somewhat of a mental mess. And the Jaguars won just three games.

The first part of the 2017 season wasn’t much better. Bortles had a five-interception practice early in training camp and got pulled from a practice days later. Coach Doug Marrone opened up the quarterback job after Bortles’ dismal performance in the second preseason game.

But Bortles won the job back, played solidly but not spectacularly for much of the season, was the league’s top-rated QB for three weeks in December, then played turnover-free football in three playoff games. He completed 60 percent of his passes for the first time and cut down on his turnovers significantly (16, which was five less than his average during his first three seasons).

Bortles’ performance in the playoffs — 594 yards, three TD passes and no turnovers in the Jaguars’ run to the AFC Championship Game — after his improvement in the regular season was what clinched the front office’s decision to sign him to a three-year extension worth $54 million with $26.5 million guaranteed.

That move drew heavy criticism from the national media and anonymous league executives. Bortles quieted those critics with a good first month of the 2018 season: He completed 64.7 percent of his passes for 1,095 yards and seven touchdowns with three interceptions. Bortles threw for 376 yards and four touchdowns in a Week 2 victory over the New England Patriots and 388 yards and two TDs two weeks later in a win versus the New York Jets.

Bortles’ season devolved after that. He threw for a career-high 430 yards but also committed a career-high five turnovers (four interceptions) in a loss at the Kansas City Chiefs, including an interception that bounced off an offensive lineman’s helmet. Bortles was benched early in the second half two weeks later after he lost a pair of fumbles, but he regained his starting job before finally losing it after the Buffalo loss.

The Jaguars scored just two offensive touchdowns in the five games after Bortles’ benching — a Kessler pass to Dede Westbrook and a Leonard Fournette run.

Bortles is second in Jaguars history in passing yards (17,646) and passing touchdowns (103) in 72 starts, but his maddening inconsistency is making the franchise start over at the position.

Bortles is one of only 15 quarterbacks to surpass 100 touchdown passes (he has 103) since he entered the league in 2014, but he also leads all signal-callers in interceptions (75) and all players in turnovers (94) during that span.

The way I understand it, Bortles already has $10M of the $16.5M that is owed him from the Jags. The $10M was part of a bonus payment he got last year. They also guaranteed $6.5M in salary for this year. Whatever salary another team pays Blake, the Jags can subtract that from the $6.5M they owe him. Of course some team could pay him more than that and the Jags would be entirely of the hook. In theory the Rams could get him for minimum wage. If Bortles does nothing this year he gets $6.5M.