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| Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles (5) calls out to the offense in the first half against the New York Jets on November 8, 2015 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. File photo by John Angelillo/UPI |
By The Sports Xchange
Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles may be willing to take less money in the future so the team can fill other needs to make the team better, he recently said in an interview.
[post_ads]Bortles could have played out his $19 million fifth-year option for this season but instead signed a three-year, $54 million deal a month after helping the Jaguars reach the AFC Championship Game. The deal includes $26.5 million guaranteed over the first two years.
Bortles said he preferred the security of the multi-year deal because he did not "really care about how much money" was in the one-year option.
Bortles praised New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for taking less money over the years to free up resources to improve other areas of the team. Bortles hinted he may do the same in the future.
"I think definitely the way that Tom has done it is the way to try to model," Bortles recently told Sirius XM NFL Radio. "Having guys and putting pieces around him was definitely something. When you take up a ton of money you kind of limit your team and who they can help you out with and put around you. I'm not naive enough to say that we don't need a run game. We also need a good defense, we need good receivers, we need all these pieces. You can't play as a quarterback and do it yourself so I'm more than willing to take less money than somebody else might in my position to put good guys around us."
In 2017, Bortles connected on 60.2 percent of his passes for 3,687 yards with 21 touchdowns and a career-low 13 interceptions during the regular season. Jacksonville advanced to the conference championship before falling to New England.
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