The Jaguars and Blake Bortles are still dating. Not that there's anything wrong with that. In fact, coming off a season in which he showed signs of progress after a 2016 season in the abyss, it's probably as it should be.

Everyone should be okay with this. And if the Jaguars were to take a quarterback a little higher in the draft than some might anticipate, or if they were to upgrade at the backup quarterback spot to someone like a Josh McCown-type, well, everyone should certainly be cool with that as well. Because the reality is the Jaguars can divest themselves of this contract without massive ramifications sooner rather than later if need be, and they are still basically going year-to-year with the former first-round pick, as they were before.

Only now the price tag is higher and so are the stakes, after Jacksonville's playoff run this winter. But not much else has changed.

Bortles was set to make $19 million this year already on his fifth-year option from his rookie contract, and he pockets $20M (guaranteed at signing, signing bonus plus salary) instead on this three-year/$54M pact (if it reaches three years, of course). And the Jaguars have now secured the rights to essentially rent him until 2020 on a yearly basis if they want to, at the cost of $26.5M guaranteed at signed. Bortles also has some guaranteed money on his 2019 salary, $6.5M, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. However, the deal has offsets, which means whatever money Bortles earned elsewhere in 2019, the Jags would not have to pay (and he could conceivably get more than $6.5M as a back-up somewhere). That's a small price to play to control that many years at this vital of a position, but then again, what more could Bortles truly demand?

Keep in mind this is a quarterback who entered last season trying to stave off the bust label; a project who was turning the ball over at an alarming rate and who appeared to lose the starting job for a spell in the preseason. And, yes, by all measures, he showed much better decision making and upside in the second half of the season in particular, and he was solid enough in the playoffs, but we are still judging from a pretty low bar here.

Bortles, 25, had a nice playoff run, but this was mostly managing an offense and trying not to get in the way too much. In the second half against New England, when the staff basically just took the ball out of his hands, let's just say it was telling. This team's rise was founded on a top-three defense and an improved run game (although I think too much gets made of how productive that ground game really is). And with all of the money the Jags have pumped into the defensive side of the ball, being able to keep their quarterback at the $18M-per year threshold allows them flexibility to re-sign more of their emerging young talent on defense.

Tom Coughlin has become comfortable enough with Bortles to let him maintain the reigns for another season or two at the right price. I get it. Makes sense enough. Though, again, I'd also be looking for a back-up who can really push him, and/or a kid I love in this draft who might be able to do the same.

And as for Bortles, he gets security in knowing he is absolutely the starter for this playoff-caliber team entering 2018, and he's going to make more money the next two years now than he was guaranteed to have prior to doing this new three-year deal (he had only $19M guaranteed for injury only previous on the fifth-year option). And as recently as November – before his play elevated the final month of the season – there was serious debate as to whether the team would even bring him back on that fifth-year option.

Just to keep things real, this is where Bortles finished in some key metrics in the 2017 season:

Completion percentage – 24th (60.2)



Yards – 11th (3687)



Yards/Attempt – 17th (7.05)



Touchdowns – 16th (21)



Touchdown percentage – 20th (4.0)



Interceptions - Tied for 7th-most (13)



Interception percentage – 19th (2.5) – so 18 QBs were better



QB Rating – 20th (84.7)



Passes of 25 yards or more – 17th (22)



Giveaways – Tied for 7th-most (16)



That's not exactly negotiating from a position of strength, and when that constitutes a major upgrade over the previous few seasons, well, Bortles should be thanking his agents for getting this done, frankly. Since Bortles entered the league, he ranks 34th in passer rating (80.8), first in interceptions (64 in 62 regular-season games), 13th in touchdown passes (90) and 33rd in yards per attempt (6.70). That'll get you fired in a lot of places, even given the state of quarterbacking in many parts these days.

And yes, Bortles was a part of some playoff wins – which aren't exactly a regular occurrence in Jacksonville – and he made some big throws and looked the part in some regards … But let's be honest, his single greatest accomplishment was not throwing an interception through those three postseason games. That wasn't exactly a transformational run. He failed to complete 58 percent of his passes in those three games and lest we forget, the Jaguars survived the Bills in the opening round with Bortles rushing for more yards than he threw for. Yeah, that happened.

He completed 49 passes in those three games (an average of 16 a game), never threw more than one touchdown in any of those playoff games and accounted for five total passing plays over 25 yards in the postseason. I readily admit that the skill players around him were a big part of the problem, and they need to upgrade the talent there, but let's not dare compare this to, like, Joe Flacco outdueling Andrew Luck, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and denting a potent 49ers defense in four straight playoff wins (three of them on the road), with no less than two passing touchdowns in each game (11-0 TD/INT), while averaging a gaudy 9-yards per attempt and posting a 117.2 quarterback rating in that 2012 run. Which ended up not with a loss in Foxboro in the AFC Championship Game, but with Flacco hoisting the Lombardi Trophy and winning the Super Bowl MVP.

Yeah, um, this wasn't that. Not by a long-shot. Not even close.

So all things considered, the Jaguars keeping their grip on Bortles and letting this play out another year is understandable. Giving him a shot of confidence and sticking with this after drafting him third overall in 2014 (higher than many projected he would go) is something ownership was obviously invested in. But what this contract truly turns out to be – will he really get $54M in Jacksonville between now and the end of the 2020 season? – is highly debatable, and if anything just look to the Alex Smith trade to see how quickly teams with Super Bowl or bust aspirations can move off a quarterback if they don't think he can get them to the promised land.

In this league, and especially with contracts like these, little is guaranteed. But Bortles gets the opportunity to build off how 2017 ended, and time will tell what comparisons are made.

"To me, it's like the Bears signing Glennon last year or the Texans gambling on (Brock) Osweiler or the Dolphins extending (Ryan) Tannehill or the Jets bringing Ryan Fitzpatrick back after one solid year there," said one high-ranking AFC exec. "The Jaguars know this player better, obviously, than those teams did, but it's really kind of the same thing, to me.

"They get to look at him year-to-year and see if he becomes who they hope he can be, but there's plenty of reasons to think that's not who he really is, either. It's low-risk, and protects the asset, but allows them to move from him, too, way before the contract ends. Even if they still owe him $7M guaranteed in 2019, think about it – they cut him and he signs a one-year deal for around that same money somewhere, and they end up barely having to pay him when you factor in the offsets."

Couldn't agree more. A mitigated gamble, but one both the team and player had ample reason to make.