NFL teams
Michael DiRocco, ESPN Staff Writer 10y

OC: Bortles came to camp prepared

NFL, Jacksonville Jaguars

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Blake Bortles is still a long way from being the Jaguars' starting quarterback, but he has impressed his offensive coordinator with his progress.

Jedd Fisch said Thursday morning that Bortles was productive during his time off between minicamp and training camp and is developing a little faster than he anticipated.

"I think that one of the things you always worry about is how does a guy handle something that he's never done before," Fisch said shortly before the Jaguars' sixth practice of training camp.

"He's had OTAs and minicamp and then now he's got four weeks to figure out what is he going to do. I thought he really prepared so he came back ahead of where I thought he was going to be."

Fisch said Bortles spent a lot of time working with fourth-year veteran Ricky Stanzi and undrafted rookie Stephen Morris in June and July. He showed up last week with a deeper understanding of the offense, particularly with where he is supposed to go with the ball against certain coverages.

"One of the things that you ask of him is to come in here and not just start from Day 1 again," Fisch said. "We didn't want Groundhog Day. We didn't want a repeat performance. We didn't want it to be like nothing's changed from the day before, so for him it was a matter of how much is he going to know, and how much is he going to recall?

"What he showed me is that it wasn't just what he recalled, but he actually dug deeper into the plays: 'So then, Coach are you saying to me if it's this coverage then I'm supposed to go here?' That's something he was able to take from the four weeks prior."

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