Bortles is not a complete NFL-level player yet, but he showed many of the attributes weve seen on a regular basis from his tape. I saw a lot of
what I saw when I wrote up his tape last December, and a few improvements were also evident.
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Bortles tends to plant with a stiff front leg in the pocket, which affects his downfield accuracy (Josh Freeman has this issue as well). And in a general sense, hes far more comfortable planting and throwing off his outside foot to either the left or right in motion than he is when setting in the pocket. This is, to a certain degree, a product of the system he was in, but its worth noting that Vince Young and Jake Locker each has this issue, and neither one of them really overcame it.
Bortles may be a better motion thrower than a pocket thrower throughout his NFL career, and if so, that would limit his professional development. Because at a certain point, you have to stand in the pocket and make a bang-on throw with bodies around you.
Overall, theres been a lot of talk about Bortles velocity that a guy who stands 6-foot-5 and weighs 230 pounds should be able to rip it downfield at any time. He clearly has the physical tools to do so, but mechanics still get in the way at times.
Bortles tends to push the ball when he throws to the right at short and intermediate levels.
Of the several throws he made the distance of half a field toward the end of his workout, he overthrew more than he should have a function of his mechanics getting out of line with his intent to make deep, accurate throws... A couple times, he over-dropped and overthrew, letting his body mechanics go out of whack. But when he has a flexible front foot and throws through his body, hes going to make any throw an NFL team could want. No problem there.
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In a general sense, I really liked what Bortles did on the run, especially when he was throwing from a simulated shotgun base. While he has a decently quick delivery, there are times when it takes an extra millisecond to get everything in line, but this issues is minimized when hes on the run. Any team playing heavy shotgun to motion, or play-action/boot-action under center, would find him a perfect fit over time. He has a consistent over-the-top throwing motion.
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You want to see quarterbacks throw from the legs up like pitchers, thats where they derive their natural velocity so that they dont have to over-extend. When Bortles does that, his velocity and accuracy line up, and you see why some consider him to be the best quarterback prospect in this draft class. But there are times when hell throw off his back foot or with both feet on the turf or with his upper body, and you see he still needs work on certain things. And this, as much as anything, is why some in the league will tell you he needs another year of development before hes ready for the rigors of the NFL.
At times, Bortles overthrew on intermediate routes, and his targets would have to reach up for them. At other times, he slightly underthrew the finesse passes, and his targets would have to reach back for the ball. Neither one of these issues is acceptable on a consistent basis in the NFL, where tight coverage windows and hyper-aggressive defenders are the order of the day.
Finally, when Palmer ran around with Bortles to simulate pass rush, Bortles mechanics got a little floppier he seemed to need an extra split second to line everything up.
Overall, I thought Bortles did well enough in this environment. Unlike Bridgewater, he didnt look worse in a controlled environment than he does on tape...