JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- It might not have been as emphatic an endorsement as he had been giving since signing quarterback Chad Henne to a contract extension in March, but Jaguars coach Gus Bradley said Monday that Henne remains the team's starter.
Bradley and his staff spent Monday evaluating potential scheme adjustments in the wake of blowout losses to Philadelphia and Washington and had not talked about making any personnel changes, but they will not replace Henne with rookie Blake Bortles for the Jaguars' home opener against Indianapolis on Sunday at EverBank Field.
"After looking at the tape I thought he had a tough day [against Washington]," Bradley said. "He had 14 hits, and then on top of it the missed assignments that we had at other positions. That's the truth right now without evaluating anything, and if you're asking me right now, yeah, Chad Henne is our starter."
To several key players, Bradley shouldn't have had to make that kind of announcement. Receiver Cecil Shorts III was annoyed that anyone would even suggest Henne should be benched because of what happened against the Redskins.
"You don't know football, you don't know what's going on," said Shorts, who has missed the first two games with a hamstring injury but is expected to return to practice on Wednesday. "It's more than what you see on TV. It's bigger than that. So, Chad is my quarterback. Period. Done deal.
"I shouldn't let this bother me, but people on the outside that don't understand football saying stuff ... but that's just part of the game. That's just part of the business. You're going to have people saying stuff all the time. Chad is a tough guy. He got hit a lot yesterday and he didn't complain one time. He didn't say one negative thing yesterday on the sideline. Not one. He played his butt off yesterday. He did what he could."
The Jaguars gave up 10 sacks and totaled 148 yards of offense in the 41-10 loss at Washington. Henne was hit four additional times and completed 14 of 28 passes for 193 yards and a touchdown and an interception. Since a blazing first half in the season opener against Philadelphia (17 points, 188 total yards, 157 yards passing, 31 yards rushing, two sacks allowed, no turnovers), the offense has been abysmal over the next six quarters: 266 total yards, 58 yards rushing, 302 passing, 11 sacks allowed and a 5-for-21 performance on third down.
Most distressing: Just 10 points.
Henne, who has completed 53.5 percent of his passes for 459 yards and three touchdowns with one interception, certainly deserves some of the blame, but he is dealing with three rookie receivers, lost his most reliable target on the first play of the second half of the Redskins game and is playing behind an offensive line that makes many mistakes and has trouble with basic pre- and post-snap communication.
"Real people that watch the film, they'll know what it is," said tight end Marcedes Lewis (305 career catches), who will miss the next six to eight weeks with a high ankle sprain after being injured Sunday. "Chad can't necessarily block and throw the ball, too. We have to make it easier for him. It's a team, and we all take it on the chin as a team."
Henne is the guy who should be taking the least amount of criticism, right tackle Cam Bradfield said.
"Chad's our quarterback, and we stand up for him," Bradfield said. "It's not his fault what happened out there [Sunday]. It's the offense as a whole."
Bortles is definitely the team's future, and the Jaguars are encouraged by what they've seen out of the No. 3 overall draft pick. But that came during the preseason when he was working with mainly second-team players against opposing defenses full of reserves that didn't blitz or use exotic coverages. Bradley and GM David Caldwell have continually said the ideal situation would be Henne playing every snap in 2014 while Bortles continues to develop on the side.
He seemed to hedge a bit on Monday, the first time he hasn't been firm in his response that Henne is the starter.
However, that might have had more to do with being preoccupied with fixing the offensive issues before even thinking about whether it's time to make the switch to Bortles.
"We haven't even talked about that part of it," Bradley said. "It's hard. I know what you're asking, but I can't answer that right now. Right now I can just say that was not part of our discussion. We looked at him [Henne] and said we've got to do something with the protection regardless of who's in there. We've got to get these things right. Those were discussions we've had up until this point."