Jacksonville Jaguars

Leaner Blake Bortles ready to consume new offensive additions, system

Published Apr. 21, 2015 5:00 p.m. ET

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Blake Bortles arrived at the Jacksonville Jaguars' first day of voluntary workouts lighter and leaner, ready to start preparing to work with a new offensive coordinator and a new high-profile receiving target.

But after a rookie season in which he threw 17 interceptions and was sacked 55 times in 14 games, the biggest change in Bortles might come from spending more than two months in California this offseason trying to improve his footwork and mechanics. A considerable portion of that time was spent with Tom House, a former major-league pitcher and pitching coach who has also fine-tuned quarterbacks from Drew Brees to Tim Tebow.

"He's obviously a baseball guy," Bortles said Tuesday. "But he knows throwers, and he's surrounded himself with some football guys that know some stuff about football. There's a mold of how to correctly get your body to work together and throw the football, and everybody's got to kind of adapt that mold to themselves and their own throwing styles."

Although Bortles was intercepted only twice in the Jaguars' final four games, he completed barely more than half of his passes over that stretch and said that his right arm "kind of deteriorated" from overuse dating back to his junior year at UCF. House tried to impress on him the importance of taking stress off the arm by incorporating the entire body in the throwing motion.

"I could tell during the season last year," Bortles said. "You're watching film, and it's like, 'That doesn't look good, but there's no time to fix it.' "

Bortles admitted he didn't look good in another area at the end of a season where the Jaguars went 3-13, saying "when I left here, I was kind of fat." His weight has since dropped from 250 pounds to 238, and he said his body fat is down to 10 percent.

Until shedding the excess weight, Bortles was large enough to create some confusion in Julius Thomas, the tight end who was the Jaguars' most noteworthy free-agent signing last month.

"My first impression was, 'Man, this guy's about as big as me,' " Thomas said. "I walked up to him, and I was like, 'There must be another tight end out here warming up his shoulder.' "

The addition of Thomas, who caught 12 touchdown passes for the Denver Broncos in each of the past two seasons, and the hiring of Greg Olson to replace Jedd Fisch as offensive coordinator represent the most significant personnel changes around Bortles. The Jaguars also tried to shore up their offensive line by signing tackle Jermey Parnell and center Stefan Wisniewski.

The one-year, $2.5 million contract given over the weekend to Wisniewski, who underwent shoulder surgery in January, was not the only recent move made by them. Tight end Marcedes Lewis agreed to a $4 million salary cut so the Jaguars can afford to retain both him and Thomas.

"Usually when you have a guy like Julius or a guy like Marcedes, one of them creates a mismatch," Bortles said. "When you can put two of them on the field at the same time, it's a nightmare for defenses."

Bortles, who finished 2014 as the 33rd-ranked quarterback in a 32-team league, doesn't anticipate a difficult transition to a second offensive system in as many years.

"In a sense, it's all the same stuff," he said. "Everybody runs the same stuff. Some people call it apples, some people call it oranges. So you've just got to learn the language. It's kind of like you know the words, you know the dictionary, now you've just got to figure out how to put sentences together."

He spent last weekend at a local high school working with Thomas and several holdover receivers from an offense that ranked ahead of only the New York Jets in passing yards per game last season.

"He can make any throw," Thomas said. "That ball's on a line. It gets there in a hurry."

Provided Bortles can remain mechanically sound throughout his second season, he could get to where the Jaguars want him to be.

"He's always had confidence," coach Gus Bradley said. "But I think he's even more confident in what he can bring."

You can follow Ken Hornack on Twitter @HornackFSFla or email him at khornack32176@gmail.com.

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