Hindsight is almost always 20/20, but in the case of the Jacksonville Jaguars and their nightmare quarterback situation, everyone saw this coming: we even spun up a post pointing to the Jags as one of the top teams that should trade for Teddy Bridgewater. As we hear it, the Jaguars scoffed at the notion. After all, they have Blake Bortles on their roster.
Things have not gone as planned for Jacksonville since the start of the season, though, with injuries and poor play at the quarterback position culminating in Bortles being benched at halftime of the Jags loss to the Texans for Cody Kessler. Bortles will start again this week and there is good reason to believe Sir Blake can lead the Jaguars to a victory over the Eagles across the pond.
But any performance by Bortles is just like any players-only meeting -- as predicted by yours truly on Sunday! -- in that it's a short-term solution to a long-term problem.
The Jaguars believed their defense and run game could make up for any deficiencies at the quarterback position. I get it. It's a viable theory and they executed the steps pretty well this offseason, picking up road grader Andrew Norwell to bolster the ground game. A few problems exist here though.
One, defense is never as consistent as offense on a year-to-year basis. And two, the Jaguars were VERY lucky with injuries last season. They missed less than 10 games from their starting defense over the full season. That is very good/lucky. By comparison, they've gotten 19 carries from Leonard Fournette alone. That is very bad/unlucky.
Part of me wants to believe the Jags are slow playing it with Fournette's injury, hoping the 2017 first-round pick, taken No. 4 overall, can fully recover from a hamstring injury and they can unleash him down the stretch. But the addition of Carlos Hyde via a trade last Friday with the Browns could certainly be a red flag for Fournette, although maybe the Jags just want a ground/pounder for the next few weeks and as insurance for their star feature back down the stretch.
Which sort of leads me to a similar point I echoed last week in this spot: the Jaguars don't have to be in this position. Fournette was a huge addition for them last year, a physical pounder who banged out yards between the tackles. But imagine a scenario in which the Jags decide to use the No. 4 draft pick on Deshuan Watson instead of Fournette, and then find a running back later in the draft.
This is also not hindsight, because there was legitimate buzz about Tom Coughlin being a huge fan of Watson, even stemming from our own Pete Prisco, who knows this team well.
I heard Coughlin loves him https://t.co/PltI2OpEQl
— Pete Prisco (@PriscoCBS) April 27, 2017
Let's do a quick exercise in opportunity cost while we're here and look at the next running back taken after each of the Jaguars subsequent picks in this draft.
At No. 34, the Jaguars drafted Cam Robinson. Dalvin Cook (No. 41) and Joe Mixon (No. 48) were the next running backs taken. Admittedly, neither has been outstanding and Mixon had major red flags. Alvin Kamara (No. 67) went one pick before the Jags next selection (No. 68) while Kareem Hunt (No. 86) was the next running back off the board after their third round pick. Both guys have been superb. James Conner (No. 105) was also taken in the third round. Following the Jaguars fourth-round pick (No. 110), Samaje Perine (No. 114) and Tarik Cohen (No. 119) came off the board. One bad miss, one potential hit, although Cohen isn't the type of feature back you necessarily want in this Jags system.
The point being that Jacksonville could have gone in a different direction with their top pick, taken a quarterback to challenge Bortles and ended up gambling on a running back later in the draft. Or, you know, just signed Carlos Hyde in free agency.
Jacksonville has a Super Bowl-caliber defense with a window to win a title that at least one player on the roster -- Jalen Ramsey -- has acknowledged is small. That same player has also acknowledged the defense is playing pretty poorly this year, find the lie.
They built out a stout running game with some interesting receiving weapons. And they stuck with Bortles even though most of the evidence told them he might not be able to carry a team for large stretches. They passed in the draft (Watson), they passed in free agency and they passed when a potential "break glass in case of emergency" option like Bridgewater came available on the trade market.
And the decision might ultimately cost them another chance at a deep run in the playoffs if the offense can't carry this team for a few weeks while the defense gets things sorted out.
To the weekly quarterback rankings.
Yell at me on Twitter @WillBrinson with your complaints, questions and (unlikely) compliments and make sure to check out my daily NFL podcast, the Pick Six Podcast, which you can subscribe to on iTunes here.
To the rankings:
| 1 | 
Patrick Mahomes
Kansas City Chiefs QB
|
| We've moved him around some, but the Chiefs are agents of destruction and Mahomes keys everything that happens. | |
| 2 | 
Drew Brees
New Orleans Saints QB
|
| Battled his tail off against the best (?) defense in the NFL before leading two huge drives on the road for a massive win. Revenge game in Minny coming on prime time. | |
| 3 | 
Philip Rivers
Los Angeles Chargers QB
|
| Anyone who jumped off the Chargers bandwagon feels like a FOOL right now with the way Rivers is playing. He's the MVP candidate no one is talking about (yet). | |
| 4 | 
Tom Brady
New England Patriots QB
|
| Not the greatest game in the world, but the Pats do what the Pats do, find ways to win. And Brady won against a good defense without Rob Gronkowski on the field too. | |
| 5 | 
Aaron Rodgers
Green Bay Packers QB
|
| Bye week came at the right time for Rodgers, who was definitely banged up after his heroics against the 49ers last week on Monday night. | |
| 6 | 
Matt Ryan
Atlanta Falcons QB
|
| Are people aware Ryan is ahead/on/near his pace from 2016 when he won MVP? | |
| 7 | 
Andrew Luck
Indianapolis Colts QB
|
| Stats don't tell the story of Luck's week against Buffalo: he only attempted 23 passes in a bloodbath. | |
| 8 | 
Kirk Cousins
Minnesota Vikings QB
|
| Cousins keeps on rolling for the Vikings, helping Adam Thielen make history and giving Minnesota life despite a lack of a running game most weeks. | |
| 9 | 
Cam Newton
Carolina Panthers QB
|
| As bad as Cam was for the first three quarters against the Eagles, his final stanza was incredible. He can do things no one else can. | |
| 10 | 
Jared Goff
Los Angeles Rams QB
|
| Ho-hum. A third straight road win for the Rams, who now head home as massive favorites over the Packers. | |
| 11 | 
Matthew Stafford
Detroit Lions QB
|
| So Stafford threw four interceptions in Week 1 and since then he has completed 70 percent of his passes for 263 yards a game and 7.9 yards per attempt with 11 touchdowns and just one interception. He's not throwing as much but he's getting more efficient. | |
| 12 | 
Ben Roethlisberger
Pittsburgh Steelers QB
|
| The bye week apparently won't be bringing back Le'Veon Bell, but the Steelers offense has been rolling nonetheless. | |
| 13 | 
Carson Wentz
Philadelphia Eagles QB
|
| Certainly can't pin the loss to Carolina on him -- Wentz playing well as of late isn't getting enough attention while the Eagles struggle to win games. | |
| 14 | 
Deshaun Watson
Houston Texans QB
|
| Dude is playing with a partially collapsed lung to the point he has to take bus rides to games. They can really use a break. | |
| 15 | 
Russell Wilson
Seattle Seahawks QB
|
| I wonder if the Seahawks will plan to pass a bunch coming out of their bye we-- HAHAHA. Sigh. | |
| 16 | 
Jameis Winston
Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB
|
| Let's set the over/under for Winston's passing attempts on average the rest of the year. I'll say 48.5. | |
| 17 | 
Joe Flacco
Baltimore Ravens QB
|
| Few humans have ever thrown his receivers into DPI penalties as well as Joe Flacco. | |
| 18 | 
Dak Prescott
Dallas Cowboys QB
|
| Quietly putting up some numbers the last few weeks and now will get the services of Amari Cooper. | |
| 19 | 
Andy Dalton
Cincinnati Bengals QB
|
| Woof. Ugly performance in prime time against the Chiefs, a team everyone is supposed to score on. They better score against Tampa or else it's time to raise red flags. | |
| 20 | 
Mitchell Trubisky
Chicago Bears QB
|
| Trubisky goes from looking pretty good to looking pretty terrible pretty quickly but he's putting up numbers and giving the Bears a chance. He runs way too much. | |
| 21 | 
Alex Smith
Washington Redskins QB
|
| Another meh game against the Cowboys, but the Redskins won and that's all that matters (for now). Smith manages the game nicely. | |
| 22 | 
Marcus Mariota
Tennessee Titans QB
|
| Another tough loss, but at least the offense started to get going late for the Titans. They've got to see if they can find something with Dion Lewis' performance. | |
| 23 | 
C.J. Beathard
San Francisco 49ers QB
|
| We need to recognize the work Beathard's putting in here. He's not perfect, but he's in a really tough situation and he's hanging in there. | |
| 24 | 
Case Keenum
Denver Broncos QB
|
| At least he doesn't have to worry about Chad Kelly taking his job anymore ... | |
| 25 | 
Baker Mayfield
Cleveland Browns QB
|
| Mayfield had a nice little outing against the Buccaneers. If he can keep Cleveland close against the Steelers the hype will start building again. | |
| 26 | 
Sam Darnold
New York Jets QB
|
| Kiss of death for Sam by including him in this column last week, especially against a Vikings defense that's starting to feast. | |
| 27 | 
Josh Rosen
Arizona Cardinals QB
|
| Scattered, smothered and covered by the Broncos. Needs a bounce back against the 49ers with a new OC. | |
| 28 | 
Derek Carr
Oakland Raiders QB
|
| Serious controversy swirling around the Raiders after their London loss and bye into trading Amari Cooper. How Carr handles it will be interesting. | |
| 29 | 
Brock Osweiler
Miami Dolphins QB
|
| ENJOY BROCKTOBER WHILE IT LASTS. | |
| 30 | 
Blake Bortles
Jacksonville Jaguars QB
|
| Big game for Bortles in London to prove he deserves to be the Jaguars starter moving forward. | |
| 31 | 
Eli Manning
New York Giants QB
|
| Feel like Eli could have a decent game against the Redskins out of nowhere, but when he's pressured it just goes south fast. | |
| 32 | 
Derek Anderson
Buffalo Bills QB
|
| Impossible situation for Anderson and he's doing all he can. At least he gets the Pats on Monday night now! | |
