JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Nobody would blame Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles if he were to start gloating.

He's the NFL's highest-rated quarterback in December, helped the Jaguars (10-4) clinch their first playoff berth since 2007 and is playing the best football of his career. He finally looks the way a No. 3 overall draft pick is supposed to look.

So he would be perfectly justified if he told everyone who has ripped, mocked, insulted, criticized or berated him to kiss his ... foot.

He won't, though. He won't even acknowledge what they've said -- other than an occasional funny one-liner in a news conference. It's just a lost cause, the 25-year-old is not going to bother with it because it doesn't really matter, anyway.

"I think when you spend time or when you spend brain space of saving all that information and all those guys that have said bad things about you, it's a waste of time," Bortles said. "It's a waste of space. It's a waste of thinking about that stuff.

"I have a couple people that I have to prove right for putting me in the position that I'm in, and as long as I'm doing that and we're finding ways to move the ball and score points, I'm happy with what I'm doing and where I'm at.”

Blake Bortles has dodged verbal barbs and opposing pass-rushers to get the Jaguars to the playoffs. Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports

Bortles has been fantastic in December: 903 yards, 71.4 percent completions, seven touchdowns, no interceptions and an NFL-high 128.6 passer rating. More importantly, the Jaguars are 3-0 and can win the AFC South this Sunday by beating San Francisco (4-10) or if Tennessee loses to the Los Angeles Rams.

That's certainly not "trash," which is how Houston defensive end Jadeveon Clowney referred to Bortles after Bortles threw for 326 yards and three touchdowns in the Jaguars' 45-7 victory in Week 15. Bortles isn't playing like a "subpar quarterback," which is how Seattle safety Earl Thomas described Bortles after Bortles threw for 268 yards and two touchdowns in the Jaguars' 30-24 victory.

The day before Bortles' hot streak began against Indianapolis, the website Deadspin.com poked fun at Bortles with a video of the halftime contest at the SEC championship game. It showed a contestant trying to throw footballs into a hole in a giant Dr. Pepper can from 5 yards away. The man was tossing the footballs two-handed from his chest, and the headline on the post was "Give it up, Blake Bortles."

Earlier this season, Cincinnati linebacker Vontaze Burfict said the Bengals' defensive game plan for their Nov. 5 meeting against Jacksonville was to stop the Jaguars' run game because “obviously [Leonard] Fournette can beat you and I'm not sure Blake can beat us. We want to put it in his hands and have him beat us, if he can.”

Fournette missed the game because of a violation of team rules, but Bortles threw for 259 yards and a touchdown in the Jaguars' 23-7 victory.

"People are always going to say things about you," Jaguars coach Doug Marrone said. "What is that saying, 'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me?' My grandmother taught me [that]."

Yeah, well, Bortles was getting hit by tree trunks and boulders throughout the offseason. New Orleans defensive end Cameron Jordan took a shot at Bortles during an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio when he talked about how much practicing against Drew Brees helped the defense.

"It's not like we're going against Blake Bortles here," he said. "It's not like Drew is giving picks away."

That criticism was on the mark, though. Bortles threw the second-most interceptions of any quarterback from 2014 to 2016 (51, one behind Philip Rivers). He led all players in those three seasons with 63 turnovers, too.

His 2016 season was a disaster. His mechanics deteriorated to the point where his college offensive coordinator didn't recognize him, he threw 16 interceptions (including three pick-sixes), and the Jaguars won just three games. One of Bortles' turnovers came when he tried to throw the ball into the dirt because a screen pass was covered but the ball bounced off T.J. Yeldon's foot and Houston linebacker Whitney Mercilus caught the rebound.

Video of that play went viral pretty quickly and Bortles was a laughingstock for a couple weeks.

By the end of the season, Bortles was admittedly somewhat of a mental mess. He said it was hard for him to look his teammates in the eyes because he let them down over and over.

The media piled on, too, with videos and stories and analysis of Bortles' mechanics, his terrible decision-making, and ripping general manager Dave Caldwell for drafting Bortles third overall in 2014. Analytics pieces showed how bad Bortles was, and there was speculation that he wouldn't last the 2017 season as the team's starter.

Then came a five-interception practice early in training camp, being pulled from a practice days later, and Marrone opening up the quarterback job after Bortles' dismal performance in the second preseason game. Things really got wild then.

Bortles won the job back, and slowly but surely won his teammates back, too, over the course of the season. He's playing the best football of his career, and that makes the Jaguars a dangerous team because of their top-ranked run game and a defense that leads the NFL in points allowed, sacks and takeaways.

"I'd like to say I've felt the same all year long. I think obviously the results and numbers have been a little better here recently, obviously," Bortles said. "I feel good, feel the same. Don't feel so pressed or trying to do more than I have in the past. I think guys are making really good plays and helping me look good.

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"It's definitely been, I think, a process, and it is for me just like we talk about it each week for Dede [Westbrook] and Keelan [Cole] getting more comfortable within the offense. I'm in the same boat. We're all in it for the first year, and each week you feel better or are a little bit better about the plan, better about the stuff you are doing. More comfortable and confident within it all, and that allows you to just go out and play free and have a clear, free mind."

But while Bortles won't gloat, his teammates will.

"It's sad, man, because the teams that are speaking about it, he's just got done shredding them," safety Tashaun Gipson said. "What he did to the Houston Texans, they should have arrested him for that, man. Dude was throwing off his back foot and making throws I've never seen before. What he did to Seattle? I would like to think those guys were speaking out of frustration.

"Obviously, guys are going to say some things like that, but you look back at it and you say, man, it's not what he's been doing, it's what he's doing now. He's playing good football. Again, he's making those guys eat those words, and I'm happy for him."

Bortles has been getting a lot of love nationally during his recent hot streak, especially from NFL Network's Deion Sanders ("I believe in Blake Bortles") and ESPN's Ryan Clark (who apologized for his harsh criticism). However, there's also an element of wondering if the past three weeks are the aberration and the real Bortles is closer to what we've seen the first three years of his career.

"People are always going to remember that, especially since there's a lot of people that don't watch our games," receiver Allen Hurns said. "That's what Blake's going to be known for until he accomplishes something big, like if we win the Super Bowl or anything like that. Blake has done a great job just tuning some of the things out and continuing to play, have his head down and not worry what everybody else is going to say.

"If he was paying attention to what everybody else is saying, it would have crushed him by now."