Tyler Krenzin
Lantern Columnist
The 2018-19 NFL season is finally underway, and as an aspiring sports journalist I am required to draw a line in the sand that nobody can budge me from.
In the first edition of my “Hot Takes” column I made the bold prediction that the Oakland Raiders and Tennessee Titans would both miss the playoffs (they were both favorites to win their respective divisions). A prediction that I would mostly get right, damn Titans. Part of my problem with the Titans is that they played in a division that had the wildly underrated Jacksonville Jaguars. As it turns out even I underestimated how good the Jaguars were. Finishing the season at 10-6, the Jaguars cruised to the AFC Championship game against the New England Patriots. Fourth quarter injuries and questionable calls kept Jacksonville from reaching the “Promised land” of the Super Bowl.
You would think that this season thing would change, but instead of talking about how amazing the Jaguars are this season, all we hear about the AFC South is that the Colts and Andrew Luck are back, or that J.J. Watt and the Texans are back. It’s almost insulting to think that the Steelers, a team who tied to the Browns this week, would have a better chance of making the Super Bowl.
The main problem that people bring up with the Jaguars is that their Quarterback situation is not great. I disagree, Blake Bortles is not as bad of an NFL quarterback as you think he is. While Bortles has never missed a start since his first in 2014, he has been dealing with an apparent hand injury over the last two seasons, that he just got surgery for. This makes sense considering that he has been sacked 164 times in his four years. When you compare that to Tom Brady’s 18-year career where he’s been sacked 454 times, you can see just how little Bortles has had up front. Yes, his Quarter-back Rating (QBR) isn’t that great, and he has the ability to turn the ball over, but when you look at where he was at last season compared to seasons before, we can tell he has massively improved. And don’t get me started on playoff Bortles. While it’s a small sample size, in three games started Bortles threw up these stat lines; 594 passing yards, a 57.6% completion rate, three touchdowns and zero interceptions. The latter being the most important stat line. Bortles had to face the Buffalo Bills, a team that had a fluky high turnover rate season, the Pittsburgh Steelers, a perineal playoff power and the New England Patriots, a team that has a history with creating turnovers.
Now to say Bortles will win the season long MVP is just foolish, I’ll leave that to “FitzMagic,” but if and when the Jaguars win the super bowl, don’t be surprised if they give the prestigious Super Bowl MVP to the “The BOAT.”