Jaguars face their grim Blake Bortles reality

It took their once-promising season spiraling completely out of control, but the Jaguars have finally identified their problem everyone but them has known for some time.

Their quarterback, Blake Bortles, wasn’t good enough.

Hours after firing offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, coach Doug Marrone benched Bortles, ESPN reported. It happened several games too late, as the 3-8 Jaguars have lost seven straight games to lock up the league’s most disappointing team award. Cody Kessler will replace Bortles under center Sunday against the Colts.

A year after reaching the AFC Championship game and signing Bortles to a three-year extension, the Jaguars are dead last in the AFC South. Bortles has been a mess, completing 60.4 percent of his passes and throwing 10 interceptions. In Sunday’s ugly loss to the Bills, he was picked off twice and completed 12-of-23 passes for 127 yards. The previous week, he was even worse, accounting for 104 yards through the air in an abysmal loss to the Steelers in which Jacksonville blew a 16-0 lead.

In each of his five NFL seasons since being the No. 3 pick in 2014, Bortles has thrown at least 10 interceptions and his 6.97 yards per completion this year is 29th in the league.