Tom Coughlin isn’t giving any clues about the Jaguars’ plans for Blake Bortles

A new era for the Jacksonville Jaguars officially kicked off Thursday fronted by executive vice president Tom Coughlin and head coach Doug Marrone, the pair charged with jump starting a franchise with 22 wins in the last six seasons.

However, the biggest question for the pair to answer wasn’t covered in the introductory press conference Thursday. Yes, the subject of quarterback Blake Bortles was raised and, yes, both Coughlin and Marrone called him “our quarterback.”

But nothing about the message provided indication that Bortles should feel comfortable about his spot at the top of the Jacksonville depth chart.

Is Bortles the Jaguars’ quarterback? That’s the million-dollar question of the offseason in Jacksonville, but for now the answer is yes. And that’s only because the only other quarterbacks on roster are Chad Henne — a 31-year-old veteran with a 18-35 career record — and Brandon Allen — a sixth-round pick who never played as a rookie in 2016.

But answering the quarterback question will be tricky for the franchise.

Bortles finished with 35 touchdowns and 18 interceptions during the 2015 season, leading an exciting young offense. But a year later with the same weapons and an improved offensive line in front of him, Bortles regressed and threw just 23 touchdowns and 16 interceptions.

Making things even more confusing for the next regime is that Bortles’ arguably top two performances of the season came in the final weeks after Gus Bradley was fired. With Marrone as interim head coach, Bortles completed 66.3 percent of his passes for 626 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions.

As owners of the No. 4 selection in the 2017 NFL draft, the Jaguars may have the chance to take the top quarterback of the class. But that’s a huge investment for the team if it still has any hope that Bortles could be the quarterback of the future.

Quarterbacks like Tony Romo, Jay Cutler, Colin Kaepernick, or Jimmy Garoppolo may all be available as well.

But determining who else could be brought in to compete with Bortles can’t be answered until the Jaguars brass decides what it thinks of the No. 3 pick in the 2014 NFL draft. And so far, they haven’t given many clues.