Blake Bortles has won three games.
Oh, he may be a star. He may make fans of the Jacksonville Jaguars forget about Blaine Gabbert and Byron Leftwich. He may lead his team to a turnaround.
But so far, Bortles is coming off a rookie season in which he threw 11 touchdowns and 17 interceptions, in which he has a 69.5 rating and in which he hit only 58.9 percent of his passes.
Ah, just in time to talk about a $100-million contract, isn’t it?
To be fair, Bortles didn’t say he deserved such a contract, and he didn’t demand one. But as he said, “that’s the goal” after Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers signed his $118-million extension. Bortles has two years to go on his rookie contract before being eligible for a new deal. Still, that’s the kind of money that is out there for a quarterback.
“$100 million is always exciting,” said Bortles, who played at Central Florida. “Those guys all earn it. They’re great quarterbacks and they get paid what they deserve.”
The thing is, Bortles had some promising moments, but no one is sure quite yet if he’s going to be a great quarterback or not. Of course, Miami’s Ryan Tannehill isn’t quite great, and he just signed a $77-million extension.
The price of quarterbacks has gone silly. The Bucs, the third team in the state, just gave their new quarterback Jameis Winston a contract worth $25.35 million, including a $16.69 million signing bonus.
The original franchise price of the Bucs?
It was $16 million.
