When it comes to the 2018 NFL season, there are few teams (though still at least one) that have been more disappointing than the Jacksonville Jaguars. Less than a year after they were a play away from a Super Bowl berth, they beat the Patriots, got off to a 3-1 start, and then promptly remembered who they were, with that memory recall leading to a seven-game (and counting) losing streak.
Now seven-game losing streaks in the NFL often lead to personnel changes; traditionally it's not a league with an abundance of patience. And on Monday — just a day after losing to the Buffalo Bills by a score of 24-21 — the Jags are opting to make a switch at quarterback by benching third overall pick Blake Bortles in favor of ex-backup Cody Kessler. This attempt to stimulate a bad offense comes just hours after the team canned offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. Bortles had thrown for just 127 yards against the Bills on Sunday and the week before he threw for a season-low 104 yards in a loss/complete collapse against Pittsburgh that may have made you wonder if the Jags' entire franchise has a winning bone in their body.
Bortles had signed a three-year extension this past offseason and was previously benched in October against the Texans (though he went on to start the next week anyway). As for Kessler, the 2016 third round pick out of USC is 0-8 as a starter in his NFL career, but the silver lining is that all eight of those losses came during his rookie season while he was signal calling for a Cleveland team that went 1-31 over a two-year span.
