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John: Sure, the Raiders-Jaguars game on October 23 almost certainly will have a touch of extra emotion for Jack Del Rio. He will be asked during the week about returning to Jacksonville. I’m sure on some level memories will flood back when the Raiders’ bus pulls up to EverBank Field. But as far as extra incentive and/or impact on the game … I doubt it. Remember, the vast majority of people with whom Del Rio worked are no longer with the organization. The only players left from his time are Marcedes Lewis and Tyson Alualu. Del Rio indeed was fired on the morning Shad Khan’s ownership was announced, but a lot of things were going wrong and the firing seemed more a matter of time than any personal vendetta. Ownership has changed since Del Rio held the job and so has the general manager. In fact, there’s very little that hasn’t changed. If Del Rio held a grudge – and after five years I doubt that would be the case – there’s not really anyone with the Jaguars against whom he would be holding it. His return will be a storyline that week, but I doubt it will be an overriding factor.

John: I believe this is the pressing question entering the final three quarters of the season. It’s not remotely a coincidence that the Jaguars’ lone victory came in the one game in which Bortles did not commit a turnover. If you take turnovers out of the equation in Weeks 1-3, the Jaguars would have had a very good chance to win the opener and almost certainly would have beaten Baltimore. In fact, if you take three first-half turnovers out of the equation against San Diego, even that one-sided loss would have looked far different. So that indeed is the main issue going forward: how do you structure the offense to allow Bortles to minimize mistakes and still make plays downfield? I imagine you’ll see a lot more schemes to roll him out and to create the opportunity for him to run if the throws aren’t there. I also imagine you’ll see the Jaguars continue to emphasize the run. I don’t know that you can take that approach all of the time because it’s hard to have your entire passing offense based on rollouts and the quarterback moving around, but it’s apparent the Jaguars need to have that as part of the approach in some capacity.

John: I hadn’t seen any merry-making over Joeckel’s injury. I’m glad for that. I’m pathetic and sad enough on my own enough without having to read people taking those traits to higher levels.

John: Bortles indeed must find his own way within his own skill set and become his own quarterback. I don’t think the end game with Bortles will be that he is a precision, quick-read passer along the lines of Manning, Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers. If that ever happens, it appears a ways off. It appears he’s going to need to make plays with his legs, make plays downfield and be effective in play action. Mostly he needs to channel whatever he did this past Sunday to not throw interceptions and to be aware in the pocket. If he’s turnover free with limited mistakes, he can be an effective quarterback.

John: The Texans have been playing pretty good defense for the better part of four or five seasons. The Jaguars have been playing decent defensive for the better part of four or five quarters. The respect will come, Mark. Just give it time. Oh, and the Jaguars need to win. That will help, too.

John: It’s a real concern for a couple of reasons. One is that he was the starting left guard. Another is that he was a very capable, proven experienced option as a backup left tackle. Throw in the fact that never was nearly as bad as many people believed – yeah, it’s a concern. It’s one the Jaguars should be able to overcome, but it’s not ideal.

John: OK.

John: The Jaguars mostly self-scouted during the bye week and will pretty much be off Thursday through Sunday. They will then begin preparing to play the Chicago Bears next week as they would on a normal week.

John: That remains to be seen. There obviously is a very good chance that Joeckel indeed has played his final game with the Jaguars. His contract expires after this season and he very likely will want a chance to play left tackle somewhere. That chance isn’t likely to come in Jacksonville. At the same time, the injury could lead to at least a short-term return to Jacksonville for Joeckel. He needed to play well this season to enhance his value on the open market. If there isn’t much of a market, a scenario in which he and the team agree to a short-term deal for Joeckel to play guard could be a possibility. That would give Joeckel a chance to play a full season and possibly enhance his value for the following offeason.

John: #DTWD

John: I understand the irritation when fans see defensive linemen and linebackers covering wide receivers. I particularly understand that irritation when fans see pass rushers not pass rushing and instead covering wide receivers. The approach by definition takes a player away from his strength and puts him in a vulnerable area. It’s probably evident from those three sentences that I’m not a fan fundamentally of the approach. At the same time, don’t think for a second that the Jaguars are remotely the only team that drops pass rushers or puts linebackers on wide receivers. It’s not that the defensive coaches believe that those are favorable matchups. The matchups almost always occur when the defense is sending exotic pressure as opposed to rushing four defensive linemen. When teams do that, they often drop linebackers and/or defensive linemen to cover for what they hope are short periods because the pressure is designed to work and disrupt the play. When the pressure fails, the lineman/linebacker is then caught in coverage and the result can look really bad. I don’t love the approach, but does its use signify major coaching concerns? If so, then pretty every NFL team has similar concerns.

John: The Jaguars are in second place in the AFC South and are within two games of the division lead with two games remaining against the team leading the division. When that’s the scenario, by definition nothing is impossible.

John: Not really, except to say this: it’s rare in the NFL to hit on a large group of draft choices in a short period. Usually within a group you have a player or two miss – even if all players in that group are selected early. The Jaguars drafted four defensive players in the first four rounds of the 2016 NFL Draft – defensive end Yannick Ngakoue, cornerback Jalen Ramsey, linebacker Myles Jack and defensive tackle Sheldon Day. Throw in Dante Fowler Jr. from the first round of last year’s draft and you have what appears to be a remarkable group of young defensive players. This could be on the verge of getting interesting.

John: Ya think?

John: I wasn’t arguing. I was simply answering a question about why it’s unlikely that Ngakoue and Fowler will both be playing end in the Jaguars’ base defense in the near future. Yes, Fowler has been very good against the run. Yes, Ngakoue has been better than expected against the run. But I’d still be surprised if you the Jaguars go to a base defense with those two at end as opposed to Tyson Alualu or Jared Odrick at the strong-side end.

John: I’ve seen more bad interference calls than I can count. The reason it’s not a reviewable call is simple. The NFL Competition Committee considers it a judgment call and therefore not one that is subject to review. The idea of review is to correct irrefutable calls such as scoring plays, balls hitting the ground, fumbles and out of bounds plays. What the league doesn’t want is officials making calls on the field and having plays reversed by replay when arguments can be made to support both calls.

John: Your question refers to an answer in Sunday’s O-Zone Late Night, which indeed was a garbled mess. It wasn’t as much jet lag as pre-international flight rushing with a dash of autocorrect. The answer referred to NFL games in London and came out something like” I see versatile possibility of it division games not being in play in future years.” What it meant to say was I see very little possibility of division games not being in play for the International Series in future years.

John: I think there’s a lot to be excited about when it comes to the Jaguars’ defense. I think the Jaguars look like they have a chance to quickly become one of the better defenses in the NFL despite the youth and lack of playing time together. I think they will only get better from here.

John: My sense is there will be some focus on this area. We’ll see if there’s a difference.

John: Colvin was playing at an extremely high level in training camp and preseason. I don’t know that he moves into the starting lineup immediately. I would guess he begins as the fourth corner, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s starting at cornerback opposite Jalen Ramsey at some point this season.

John: They might score three or four more points a game, too, which would make, you know – a difference.

John: Wow, you are fanning – but while your points about Bortles have some validity, it doesn’t have to be quite as dire as you fear. Bortles may never fit the NFL Quarterback Mold – that is, being crisp and dazzlingly accurate from the pocket. Perhaps he will, but if that’s going to happen he’s going to need to mature/develop into that style. For the short term, what Bortles has shown he can be is a quarterback who can make big plays and who can be effective when using his mobility to get outside the pocket. On Sunday, he showed he can do that and get through a game without committing turnovers. Those last few elements need to be part of his formula for the short term.

John: I’m very rarely going to bang the table for quarterbacks to get more called running plays and I’m certainly not going to bang anything in this case. Running plays expose quarterbacks to injury risk and great quarterbacks usually can win from the pocket. And while the running yardage from designed quarterback runs are nice, they usually don’t accomplish a major objective of the run in the modern NFL, which is to establish the threat of the run and therefore help the offense overall. Bortles may average a few more yards per carry than Chris Ivory/T.J. Yeldon, but defenses aren’t going to commit extra defenders to stopping him, so the aftereffect of those runs is relatively minimal. I think Bortles probably would benefit from a few more designed rollouts and he probably would benefit from running with decisiveness when the pocket collapses, but no … I’m not a fan of the idea of game plans that plan for him to be a third running back.

John: OK.

John: That’s indeed a harsh way of saying many things we discussed about Bortles throughout the offseason. These of course were many of the same issues that existed last season when he looked very much at times like a player who was ascending to the point of being a very good NFL quarterback. Bortles has some weaknesses. They have overshadowed his strengths thus far this season. Are they going to continue to do that and define his career? It’s too early to know that no matter what Chris Simms might believe. And I’m going to hold off on researching Simms’ ascension to the high altar of quarterback evaluation. I’m still sort of tired from the trip and don’t want to get into it.

John: Without question.

John: The Jaguars have struggled enough early in games that this indeed is a reasonable conclusion. It’s a bit extreme and it’s probably not all-inclusive. It also needn’t be the case moving forward, but through three games? Yes, this is a reasonable conclusion.

John: Bortles has struggled enough early in games that this indeed is a reasonable conclusion. It’s a bit extreme and it’s probably not all-inclusive. It also needn’t be the case moving forward, but through three games? Yes, this is a reasonable conclusion.

John: The Jaguars have struggled enough over the last four or five seasons that this indeed is a reasonable conclusion. It’s a bit extreme and it’s probably not all-inclusive. It also needn’t be the case moving forward, but right now? Yes, this is a reasonable conclusion.

John: There’s probably an element of this. Robinson was double covered quite a bit down the middle third of the field against Green Bay in Week 1. Though offensive coordinator Greg Olson said that hasn’t been as much the case the past two weeks, it stands to reason teams will defend the Jaguars’ best receiver at least a bit differently until Bortles and Robinson figure a way to beat it consistently.

John: I’m on record saying I honestly don’t know if Bradley is the guy. I say that because he hasn’t won – and until a coach wins, you can’t know if he’s the guy. He didn’t have the talent to win early in his Jaguars career and he hasn’t had enough talent long enough to prove for certain that he’s not the guy. Also, let’s keep the Jaguars’ talent in perspective. Yes, they have more talent than they did in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Yes, they have talent that they should be better than 0-3. But I would not say they yet have veteran, experienced talent where I would necessarily consider it a horrendous coaching job if they miss the postseason. I thought realistically this team could get to eight-to-nine wins, but I also thought the offense would perform better early. Can the Jaguars win enough the rest of the season where we get a better idea if Bradley’s the guy? Stay tuned.

John: One, I don’t know. Two, apparently.

John: I’m not sure who you are, but at some point C.C. from Duval’s going to know you hacked his account. #toopositivetoreallybecc #dtwd

John: It’s a big game. No doubt about that.

John: There’s certainly some truth to this – and it’s very, very possible that all of the analysis, thought, commentary and pontificating on Blake Bortles’ issues on this site and elsewhere has been a bit premature. Just because he has struggled to start this season does not ensure those struggles will continue. If anything has defined him in two-plus seasons it has been the ability to accurately self-assess and successfully improve when he sees areas that need improvement. There also indeed are many factors that have played into the Jaguars’ disappointing 0-3 start – with a struggling offensive line chief among them. Are people overanalyzing Bortles? Are some people over-hating on Bortles? Perhaps. But however much we’re overanalyzing, Bortles hasn’t played well enough in the first three games of the season. His level of play may not justify hate, but it does merit concern.

John: I say the Jaguars need to win Sunday for many, many reasons.

John: There’s no question the troubles of the run offense have hurt Bortles. Fans roll their eyes and get angry when they hear Jaguars coaches and players talk about needing to run, but this offense must run to be effective. Bortles thus far hasn’t shown himself to be a quick-timing, precision, accurate intermediate short passer – at least not enough of one to win consistently solely by passing at all costs and eschewing the run. It’s also difficult to have consistent success trying to hit enough big pass plays early to spread out the defense. The hope for the Jaguars’ offense on this front lies deep within the first two games of the season. There were times against Green Bay in Week 1 and early against San Diego in Week 2 – when the offensive line was healthy – that the run game showed signs of moving effectively. The Jaguars get Chris Ivory back this week. Remember early in the preseason? When Ivory and T.J. Yeldon were both healthy running behind an almost-healthy line? There were times the run game looked really good. A couple of preseason games isn’t much on which to pin the hopes of an entire run offense. Right now, it’s what the Jaguars have.

John: It absolutely is not time to bench Bortles. I don’t know that he is the future. I do know he has struggled to start this season but I also know he showed enough last season to at least show signs that he might be the future. Whatever the end result, he must play this season to find out for sure.

John: When an offensive line struggles it’s rarely one player because there’s so much teamwork involved. A lack of continuity hasn’t helped. Kelvin Beachum started one preseason game and two regular-season games at left tackle, and the absence of Beachum and center Brandon Linder against Baltimore last Sunday contributed to the struggles. Right tackle Jermey Parnell indeed appeared to have some rough plays on Sunday, but I wouldn’t say he’s remotely alone on that front.

John: I haven’t stopped you yet.

John: I don’t doubt that there instances when frustration causes Bortles to look irritated-ly and frustrated-ly to the sideline when plays don’t work. Are failed bubble screens frustrating? Sure. But I’d be surprised if Bortles deep down is very frustrated with attempts to establish the run. It’s very difficult for any team to pass effectively without at least the legitimate threat of the run, and it’s particularly hard for Bortles because of how good he is with play action.

John: More offensive production, which sort of ties into that one sentence that I’m not allowed to write.

John: Overall the talent on the roster is starting to show up, especially on defense. It was reasonable to expect that side of the ball to take a few weeks to jell considering the new faces and young players. The surprising thing to many people is that the offense has started so slowly. There was an assumption that the Jaguars would take a step forward offensively this season. There was an assumption that step would happen sort of automatically. There was an assumption that some of the flaws we saw last year would go magically away with a year experience. To date, those assumptions were incorrect.