Report: Blake Bortles’s Request to be Released From Saints Granted

Blake Bortles has requested that the Saints release him, and the team will do just that, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. His decision comes in the wake of New Orleans’s signing Andy Dalton. Now, the 29-year-old will enter the free-agency market to look for an opportunity as a second-string signal-caller elsewhere. 

Bortles signed with the Saints in December but the team’s recent moves have clouded his position on the bench. Bortles, Dalton, Ian Book and Jameis Winston are all signed to New Orleans. Not to mention, utility player Taysom Hill is still with the squad—although coach Dennis Allen did say the team will use him specifically as a tight end in 2022. 

The journeyman quarterback will now be looking to join his sixth NFL team after signing deals with the Jaguars, Rams, Broncos, Packers and Saints in the past. He hasn’t appeared in regular season game since 2019, however, while with the Rams. 

He was last a starting quarterback in 2018 with Jacksonville, the team that drafted him with the No. 3 pick in the 2014 draft, but those days are long behind him. 

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