Three quarterbacks were selected in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft and all three saw action on Sunday. While
Johnny Manziel was catching a pass on a gadget play,
Teddy Bridgewater and
Blake Bortles both saw significant time under center. Bridgewater entered the Vikings game in the second quarter after a
season-ending injury to
Matt Cassel, while Bortles took the helm for the Jaguars in their second half to replace chronically ineffective
Chad Henne. We reviewed the film from both games to get a sense of how they fared in their NFL debuts.
Chosen third overall, Bortles generated much excitement with his successful pre-season. However, our initial thought upon witnessing his first NFL regular-season throw was, “What the #$&@ happened to his mechanics?” Bortles looked like a different player on Sunday than he did in August and the change was not for the better. It is hard to understand what the Jaguars quarterbacks coach,
Frank Scelfo, is teaching ‒ or why he is teaching it. To explore this further, we compared film from Bortles’ pre-draft workouts for NFL scouts with footage of his Sunday debut for Jacksonville.
