2014 NFL mock draft: Texans select Blake Bortles

With the first pick in Pride Of Detroit's 2014 NFL mock draft, the Houston Texans select UCF quarterback Blake Bortles. Kudos is serving as the Texans' general manager, and his reasoning for the pick is below.

After last year's train wreck of a season, the Texans parted ways with their head coach, Gary Kubiak, and franchise quarterback, Matt Schaub. They filled the first void with former Penn State head coach and quarterback guru Bill O'Brien, but still seem to be without a franchise QB. As Texans GM, I decided to fill that opening with the former Central Florida signal caller.

There is currently a consensus top-three quarterbacks in this year's draft: Teddy Bridgewater, Blake Bortles and Johnny Manziel. After taking both O'Brien's offensive philosophy and past quarterbacks into consideration, I believe that Bortles is the best fit. O'Brien seems to favor a big quarterback running a pro-style system, and the 6'5, 232-pound Bortles ran one at UCF. There is also a familiarity between the coach and QB. O'Brien coached against Bortles this past season, and the two share a common mentor in current UCF head coach George O'Leary.

Neither Bridgewater nor Manziel has the size that O'Brien tends to look for in a QB, and Manziel doesn't have much experience running a pro-style offense.

Jadeveon Clowney is a possibility here, but Houston shouldn't pass up this opportunity to land its franchise QB.

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Check out the 2014 POD Community Mock Draft tracker for a look at all of the picks.