The Jacksonville Jaguars will host their first playoff game since the 1999 season when they take on the Buffalo Bills this weekend.
For the Jaguars, it’s a return to relevance after more than a decade hiatus. It also coincides with embattled quarterback Blake Bortles putting up the best season of his career. Despite throwing five interceptions in the final two regular season games, Bortles finished 2017 having completed 60 percent of his passes for 3,687 yards with 21 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.
Despite this, there’s a train of thought out there that Jacksonville is not a legitimate Super Bowl contender with Bortles at quarterback. Bortles himself has also continued to be on the receiving end of jokes from fans and onlookers the football world over.
Center Brandon Linder is none too happy about it.
“It (expletive) pisses me off. I get so angry about it,” Linder said, via The Ringer. “But he doesn’t listen to all the (expletive), he’s great about it. … If the joke is in his face he’ll laugh about it, but then lets everything go.”
Tell us how you really feel, Mr. Linder.
This comes on the heels of Titans defensive tackle Jurrell Casey putting the quarterback on absolute blast.
Chill, y’all. I was just hyping our defense. If we put the pressure, some QBs will choke.#OnToKC#TitanUp https://t.co/tWnuLPXK2X
— Jurrell Casey (@Jurrellc) January 3, 2018
My gosh.
In any event, it’s nice to see that Linder has his signal caller’s back. That center-quarterback relationship is important. And the two are obviously close.
Whether Bortles can change the narrative against Buffalo this upcoming weekend remains to be seen.