WHAT THEY'RE SAYING

Notes, Quotes

The Sports Xchange

September 29, 2018 at 9:44 am.

–Quarterback Blake Bortles is now one of just four players in NFL history to have thrown for at least 15,000
yards and rushed for at least 1,500 yards through their first five seasons. The others include Seattle’s Russell Wilson (2012-16), Carolina’s Cam Newton (2011-15) AND San Francisco’s Jeff Garcia (1999-2003). Bortles current totals are 15,636 passing yards and 1,514 rushing yards just three games into his fifth season. Bortles needs 21 completions this week to surpass David Garrard (1,406) and move into second place on the team’s all-time completions list. Mark Brunell holds the record with 2,184 completions in his nine years with Jacksonville. Bortles is No. 2 on the career list for pass attempts (1,275 behind Brunell) and is No. 3 in passing yards (367 behind Garrard for the No. 2 spot).

–Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone has not faced Jets quarterback Sam Darnold, but Marrone said he and Jaguars coaches are familiar with New York’s rookie QB. “We watched him at (Southern Cal)and he was a guy that could make all the throws,” Marrone said. “I think he has really good feet in the pocket. He can escape and extend (the play). I think he does a really good job with his eyes, being able to keep it downfield and not really look at the rush. I know there is a lot of talk about him being the youngest quarterback to start and things of that nature, but I don’t look at him as a rookie back there. It may be technically that way, but I really don’t see it that way. I see a guy that can make all the throws, is dangerous, is getting better each week.”

–Three games into the 2018 season and the Jaguars have gotten little production out of their 7-player draft class from last April. Safety Ronnie Harrison, a third round pick, is the only one of the seven players who has started this year. The rookie safety has been in the starting lineup each of the three games thus far as the Jaguars have opened each game with five defensive backs. Harrison had a strong showing against New England, finishing with seven tackles. But he combined for just two tackles in the other two games. First-round pick Taven Bryan and seventh-round pick Leon Jacobs have seen a fair amount of playing time but have totaled just two and four tackles respectively thus far. Seventh-round pick Logan Cooke is the team’s regular punter and has a 40.2 average thus far. Second-round pick DJ Chark has played briefly in three games and has just one catch. Offensive tackle Will Richardson (4th round) has been inactive all three games and quarterback Tanner Lee (6th round) is on the team’s practice squad.

Chart dropped the only pass thrown his way in last Sunday’s game against Tennessee. Coach Doug Marrone talked about Chark being upset with his performance and how he’s dealing with that as a head coach. “I think you have to go right back to him,” Marrone said. “It is always been my philosophy, if someone dropped a football, we were trying to go to him the next play. Really trying to do that and then during the week, asking that player to do all the extras to make sure that in his mind, he is doing the proper work to get himself over it. I think it is a combination of those two things.”

BY THE NUMBERS: 3 — Jacksonville’s three TDs allowed in the first three weeks this season are the fewest in the NFL and the fewest the Jaguars have allowed through three games in a season since 2004 (2).

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