Skip to main content

Blake Bortles received second-round grade from committee

UCF junior quarterback Blake Bortles will meet with Knights coach George O'Leary on Friday to go over his NFL Advisory Board grade, the Orlando Sentinel reported Thursday afternoon.

Bortles (6-foot-4, 230 pounds), one of the fastest-rising prospects in the nation this season, led UCF to a stunning 52-42 upset of Baylor in Wednesday night's Fiesta Bowl for the biggest victory in school history.

Phil Savage, executive director of the Reese's Senior Bowl and a former NFL executive, tweeted Wednesday night that Bortles was given a second-round grade by the NFL Draft Advisory Board.

There are a lot of quarterback-needy teams, and numerous analysts, including NFL Media's Daniel Jeremiah, have Bortles among their top three quarterbacks nationally.

Bortles' Fiesta Bowl performance was somewhat uneven. He threw for 301 yards and three touchdowns and also rushed for a career-high 93 yards and a TD. He also threw two interceptions, and two of his TD passes were short passes that wide receiver Rannell Hall turned into long TDs with sheer speed.

While Bortles settled down in the second half, he looked jittery in the pocket at times in the first half and made some off-balance and off-target throws when pressured.

Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.