Blake Bortles' season came to a close last week, and not long after it did, he went under the knife. The Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback had surgery Friday to repair a right wrist injury, according to a report from ESPN's Adam Schefter.
Bortles dealt with the issue in his throwing wrist since early December 2016. The Jaguars elected to avoid surgery last offseason and treat the injury with a variety of shots. The shots became less effective into the season and made the need for surgery inevitable.
The surgery repaired a small tear and full recovery is expected.
Ordinarily a team's starting quarterback undergoing surgery on the wrist of his throwing hand would be an interesting enough development, but it is made even more interesting by Bortles' contract situation.
The Jaguars picked up Bortles' $19 million fifth-year option last offseason, but the option is guaranteed only for injury. In other words, if Bortles is still injured by the first day of the new league year, that $19 million will count against Jacksonville's 2018 books no matter what.
The Jaguars no longer have the gobs of cap space they've had the past few seasons, and being able to cut ties with Bortles and create another $19 million to spend this offseason was one of the ways they could have pursued an upgrade at quarterback. That path now becomes complicated by Bortles' recovery. It's possible he could be medically cleared and healthy enough to be cut by the time the new league year begins, but the Jags are going to be cutting it very close.