Bortles modeled recent contract extension after Brady

The Jacksonville Jaguars signed Blake Bortles to a three-year contract extension in February, a deal which makes the quarterback the 20th highest-paid player at the position in terms of average annual value.

Bortles' contract guarantees him $26.5 million over the next two seasons, but claims he didn't care about how much money he makes. He pointed to New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's habit of leaving money on the table to help his team improve at other positions.

"I think definitely the way the Tom (Brady) has done it is the way to try to model," Bortles said on Sirius XM NFL Radio. "Having guys and putting pieces around him was definitely something. When you take up a ton of money you kind of limit your team and who they can help you out with and put around you.

"I'm not naive enough to say that we don't need a run game. We also need a good defense, we need good receivers, we need all these pieces. You can't play as a quarterback and do it yourself so I'm more than willing to take less money than somebody else might in my position to put good guys around us."

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Bortles has not performed at Brady's level during his NFL career to date, but he did lead the Jaguars to the AFC Championship game in his fourth campaign.

The quarterback's contract may turn out being quite useful to his team. Jacksonville has spent the most 2018 cap dollars on defense in the league ($120.34 million), according to Spotrac.

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