The Los Angeles Rams recently found their replacement for Sean Mannion as Jared Goff’s backup, signing former Jacksonville Jaguars starting quarterback Blake Bortles to a one-year contract.
Bortles led the Jaguars to the AFC Championship Game as recently as 2017, but his struggles in 2018 led to the end of his tenure in Jacksonville.
The 26-year-old could have potentially held out to try and be a starter somewhere, but after meeting with the Rams, the first team he sat down with, he was convinced that Los Angeles as the right place for him even if it is as a backup.
Bortles said a big reason for that was the presence of head coach Sean McVay, who is known for having success with quarterbacks, via Myles Simmons of TheRams.com:
“I mean, I think as a quarterback, there’s not really anybody else you’d rather be around if you had your pick,” Bortles said. “What he’s done, the people that have been taken out of here for head coaching jobs, and OC jobs in other places I think is a testament to how good he is at what he does, how good of a teacher and a coach he is. And you watch them play, and the effort and intensity that they play at speaks to the type of head coach he is and how he gets the guys going.”
While Bortles wasn’t necessarily known to be one of the best starting quarterbacks in the league, he is definitely a very capable backup, which has become important in this league.
With a backup quarterback now in place, the Rams can now focus on filling other needs in the draft and free agency to help get them back to the Super Bowl this upcoming season.
Follow @RamsNationCom on social media: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
