Review: Should Cody Kessler be starting for the Jaguars instead of Blake Bortles?

Blake Bortles is still the starter for the Jacksonville Jaguars. He’s had three straight horrible games that ruined a 3-1 start and dropped the Jaguars below .500, but coach Doug Marrone still says Bortles under center gives the team “the best opportunity to win.”

That may end up being true when the Jaguars travel to London to face the Eagles in Week 8, but it definitely wasn’t the case in Week 7. When Bortles left the field, Cody Kessler took over and the Jaguars offense finally looked halfway competent again.

That’s probably not what Jacksonville had in mind when it gave up a conditional seventh-round pick to acquire the 25-year-old Kessler in March. Yet, it was the former Cleveland quarterback getting paid an average of $847,271 per year and not Bortles — a fifth-year starter with an $18 million average salary — who found success against the Texans defense.

Kessler completed 21 of his 30 passes in the 20-7 loss. He finished with just 156 passing yards, but in the 26 or so minutes of regulation time that Kessler played, the Jaguars offense finally scored and threatened to do so again.

The Jaguars should be competing for a Super Bowl, but can’t stop shooting themselves in the foot, especially at the quarterback position. The Jaguars locker room is getting frustrated, but did Kessler show enough in his time against the Texans to warrant replacing Bortles in the lineup?

The word “efficiency” can mean a few different things for an NFL quarterback. Most often it means throwing more completions than incompletions, and Kessler passed that test with 70 percent of his passes completed Sunday.

But the efficiency with which Kessler actually gets the ball and gets it out of his hand was what separated him from Bortles against the Texans.

Compare these two short curl routes — each on third down — from the Jaguars’ two quarterbacks:

The first is Bortles. He waits until receiver D.J. Chark has turned around to begin his throw, then his lengthy throwing motion allows the Texans cornerback to stop the play short. The Jaguars punted on the next play.

The second is Kessler. He anticipates Donte Moncrief out of his break and gets him the ball quickly with a clean, quick throw. The ball is in Moncrief’s hands before a defender has a chance to close and the receiver is able to push up field for another three yards.

Bortles’ throwing motion has been a subject of discussion since he arrived in Jacksonville, and — despite working on it each offseason — it is still a problem. His 72 interceptions since 2014 are the most in the NFL over that span, and his 43 fumbles are second only to Russell Wilson.

One of the reasons he’s been a turnover machine is his throwing motion. His elongated release allows the ball to be stripped from his hands and no player since 2014 has anywhere near as many passes batted down or tipped up into the air at the line of scrimmage than Bortles.

It was a limited sample size with just 30 passes Sunday, but Kessler didn’t have any passes batted down by the Texans in Week 7.

Kessler’s only turnover of the day was mostly, if not, entirely T.J. Yeldon’s fault. On a short pass in the middle of the field, Kessler’s pass bounced off the hands of Yeldon straight into the arms of Texans safety Tyrann Mathieu:

Maybe Kessler led Yeldon a little too much when the running back was settling into an open area of the field, but it’s a play Yeldon probably should’ve made.

There was also a fumble by Kessler when he was hit from behind by Texans pass rusher Whitney Mercilus.

It was another play where it’s tough to pin the blame on the quarterback much. It certainly wasn’t as bad or costly as Bortles’ two fumbles, one of which set up the Texans near the end zone and ended Bortles’ day:

The Jaguars want to play with suffocating defense and a grinding offense that leans on the run. The worst thing that can happen for a team like that are offensive turnovers. They swing field position, momentum, and threaten to force the Jaguars into being a one-dimensional team that has to pass to catch up.

In less than a half of the game, Kessler had to throw 30 passes against a Houston defense that pinned its ears back and went after him. But even under fire Sunday and during his 0-8 time as a starter in Cleveland, he has at least shown that he’ll be careful not to gift the ball to the defense.

That’s been a problem for Bortles his entire career and, even in his fifth season, it’s an area where he may still be the worst in the NFL.

The hard thing about sitting Bortles is that sometimes — completely at random — he’s incredible. In the second game of the Jaguars’ 2-0 start, he threw for 376 yards and four touchdowns in a 31-20 win against the Patriots.

Bortles also has the ability to frequently crank out huge rushing plays:

His career rushing average is 6.4 yards per carry — behind only Michael Vick (7.0) and Bobby Douglas (6.5) on the list of players with at least 200 career carries.

That is most definitely not Cody Kessler. He rushed 11 times for 18 yards with the Browns and twice for 8 yards with the Jaguars on Sunday.

Kessler’s probably not going to connect on many deep balls either. His longest play of the day against the Texans was for 15 yards, although it didn’t help that Kessler was consistently under pressure. Deep passing isn’t exactly Bortles’ forté either, though.

But if the Jaguars are aiming for sporadic moments of offensive brilliance, Bortles is probably the better choice. If they want to take care of the ball, win field position battles, and increase their time of possession, Kessler has the edge.

Some of the Jaguars players seem to be getting fed up with Bortles. They haven’t outright said it, but they’ve sure come close. Here’s Jalen Ramsey dancing around the subject after the loss Sunday:

Then on the field, Kessler entering the game had the Jaguars defense fired up:

Then they celebrated with him after his touchdown pass to Yeldon:

Jaguars defensive lineman Calais Campbell is one of the only ones who has publicly supported Bortles, but tensions are high in the locker room, to say the least:

Marrone said Wednesday that Bortles is still getting all of the first-team reps in practice. But it’s clear Bortles is on a short leash now, and if he starts slow again in Week 8, he could get yanked early.

The good news for Bortles is that he’s been a different quarterback on his previous trips to London. In three games at Wembley Stadium, Bortles has eight touchdowns with one interception and the Jaguars are 3-0.

That trend better continue against the Eagles in Week 8, because it’s getting hard for the Jaguars — who are still in the AFC South race and desperately need a win — to justify keeping Bortles ahead of Kessler on the depth chart.