New offensive coach wants Bortles mobile

JACKSONVILLE — First-year Jaguars offensive coordinator Greg Olson isn’t looking to take strengths away from quarterback Blake Bortles.

That’s why the 6-foot-5, 232-pound Bortles will still be on the move extending plays in 2015.

Olson is tasked with solving a glaring problem after the offense allowed a franchise-worst 71 sacks last season. However, instructing Bortles not to use his unique escapability skills won’t be part of the solution.

Bortles was sacked 55 times in 14 games as a rookie. Several were on plays in which Bortles held the ball longer than he should have.

However, Bortles also was second on the team in rushing with 419 yards. He averaged 7.5 yards on 56 carries, most of which were scrambles. He also completed several passes for big gains after avoiding initial pressure.

“When a play does break down protection-wise and you have a guy that can go get yards, you don’t want to discourage it,” Olson said Thursday. “There is a time to make something to happen with your feet. For other quarterbacks, that’s not part of their makeup. That’s a strength of Blake’s and we want him to continue to utilize that.”

Olson sees the sack number dropping based more on the offense gelling together as a whole. Ideally, the offense will become one in which Bortles can largely operate out of the pocket.

“As we get better working in conjunction as an offense there should be less of those opportunities,” Olson said. “Then, he can become more of a pocket passer. But, we never want to discourage him using his ability.”

Marrone speaks

New Jaguars assistant head coach-offensive line coach Doug Marrone met with reporters for the first time since he opted out of his Buffalo Bills contract Dec. 31 and was subsequently hired by the Jaguars Jan. 20.

Here are some

of

the highlights:

Marrone, as expected, wasn’t inclined to look back at his two years with the Bills in general and his decision to leave the team in particular (with $4 million still coming to him from the team this year).

“At the end of the day, I had two outstanding years in Buffalo and I think [new owners] Terry and Kim Pegula are going to be outstanding,” Marrone said. “I really can’t say enough about the people within the organization, from the trainers to the public relations department to the equipment people. They were outstanding.

“I had a three-day window in my contract, which was obviously difficult because of the time aspect of it. My family and I made a decision to leave. … And we’re not looking back. We’re looking forward and it’s that simple.”

Marrone said he last talked to Terry Pegula “a couple of weeks ago,” and called it a “good conversation.”

If Marrone said he had no issue with the new owners, was there acrimony between him and upper management, chiefly general manager Doug Whaley?

“The only people I had conversations with were Terry and Kim and they were great,” Marrone said, clearly avoiding any specifics for why exactly he wanted out of Buffalo.

Two reports were brought up to Marrone, the first a New York Daily News story that quoted a source saying Marrone was “the definition of average.”

Marrone’s response: “I won’t respond to the sourced [story] because if you start responding to that, you’re chasing ghosts all the time.”

In a radio interview, former Syracuse assistant Bob Casullo called Marrone “self-centered, selfish and greedy.”

Marrone’s response: “The former coach is somebody I had to let go of and we had worked with twice. To say I didn’t expect something like that to happen would be naïve on my part. Sometimes, when you have to move on from people, they look to get you back. I’m not like that so I wouldn’t understand why somebody would do that.”