What leverage did Bortles really have?

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The three-year, $54 million deal given by the Jaguars to quarterback Blake Bortles looks on the surface like a good deal for the team. With the market for quarterbacks finally approaching $30 million, the Jaguars got Bortles for only $3 million per year more than the Bears paid to glorified placeholder Mike Glennon a year ago.

But there’s also an argument to be made that the Jaguars paid Bortles too much. Think of it from the player’s perspective. If the Jaguars had cut Bortles before his $19 million base salary for 2018 became fully guaranteed on March 14, who would have paid him $18 million per year, while also giving him a chance to make another $12 million over the course of the next three years? Who would have given him that money along with a promise that he wouldn’t be this year’s version of Glennon, holding the No. 1 job on the depth chart until supplanted in October by a first-round draft pick who unexpectedly arrives in late April?

Consider the teams that are, or may be, looking at free-agent options: the Bills, Jets, Browns, Broncos, Giants, Vikings, and Cardinals. Which would have gone all-in with Bortles based on his four years in Jacksonville? Which would have paid him so much that it would have made no sense to also draft a potential franchise quarterback?

In the end, his best leverage came from two things: (1) his $19 million salary for 2018; and (2) the team’s realization that other available free-agent options would cost too much, disrupting the ability to keep other key players in place. It definitely didn’t come from what he could have gotten from another team, because he wouldn’t have gotten $18 million per year (with the chance to get $22 million per year) along with a presumed role as the 2018 starter.

That said, the length of the deal still allows the Jaguars to do to Bortles what the Bears did to Glennon. But Bortles will get more than $26 million guaranteed at signing, $7 million more than he would have gotten if the Jaguars had decided to let him enter his option year.

Still, it’s fair to call this one a win-win, possibly paving the way for winning one or two more postseason games in 2018 or 2019.

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