The Jacksonville Jaguars have turned to rookie quarterback Blake Bortles after Chad Henne's uninspiring start to the season. Bortles got his first NFL start against the San Diego Chargers, and it was a mostly promising debut despite some rough patches.
Fantasy football start/sit advice, Week 5: Blake Bortles
Blake Bortles had a promising debut in Week 4 and looks to get the Jaguars their first win. We break down his Week 5 fantasy matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports
Bortles finished the game with 29-of-37 passing for 254 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. He had a sharp 78.4 completion percentage, although the 6.9 yards per attempt was noticeably down from his Week 3 relief appearance (9.3) and preseason (10.2). Despite his big arm, the Jaguars didn’t let him take too many shots downfield, as demonstrated by this chart.
Bortles Breakdown from San Diego game. #jaguars pic.twitter.com/cN0EGdaiJ7
— Ryan O'Halloran (@ryanohalloran) September 30, 2014 Fantasy impact: The Jaguars need a win, and to do that they need to let Bortles be Bortles, using his arm and running ability to extend drives and keep their woeful defense off the field. The Pittsburgh Steelers are a favorable matchup for Bortles thanks to their banged-up defense.
Another factor working in Bortles' fantasy favor is, ironically, his defense. Pittsburgh's offense can move the ball at will and the Jaguars have shown little ability to stop anyone (Ben Roethlisberger, Le'Veon Bell and Antonio Brown are all no-brainer starts). Bortles should eat up the passing yards playing from beyond, although fantasy owners should expect a few mistakes to go with that. If they open up their offense, Bortles is a comfortable mid-range QB2 with streaming value during the bye weeks.
