JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Little more than an hour after the Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Seattle Seahawks at EverBank Field on Sunday, defensive tackle Abry Jones sent out a four-word tweet.

“In 5 we trust.”

Several players have talked in the locker room about their confidence in Blake Bortles and how much better he has played in 2017, but Jones’ tweet was a public show of support for the maligned quarterback. Bortles’ past two games have arguably been the two best of his career, and those performances have clearly won him the support of his teammates.

But has all that been enough for him to take snaps here in 2018 and beyond? Has he proved to executive vice president of football ops Tom Coughlin, general manager Dave Caldwell, head coach Doug Marrone and offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett that he can be the franchise quarterback the team envisioned he’d become when it drafted him third overall in 2014?

“I don’t know,” Bortles said. “That’s obviously above my pay grade. I was kind of, I guess, able to get out of my head or [stop] trying to prove everybody wrong and realizing [QB coach Scott Milanovich], Nate, Doug, Coughlin and Dave are the guys I’ve got to make sure believe in me. I make sure they’re comfortable and confident with putting me in position to go play quarterback and lead this team every Sunday.

“So as long as I’m doing the things that in their eyes are right and correct, that’s all I’ve got to worry about and those are the only guys I’ve got to appease. That’s kind of made things simpler for me.”

There is still plenty of time for Bortles to add to his 2017 résumé, beginning with Sunday’s home game against Houston. The Jaguars (9-4) can clinch the franchise’s first playoff berth since 2007 by beating the Texans (4-9), which certainly would be an entry in Bortles favor.

So is the fact that he has played fantastic football the past two weeks. He has completed 71 percent of his passes for 577 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions in the Jaguars’ victories over Indianapolis and Seattle. His passer rating of 121.5 in December is the highest of any quarterback.

That seems to at least be beginning to overcome three years of turnovers (63) and the same number of pick-sixes as victories (11). Last season was particularly bad. His mechanics deteriorated, he didn’t play well, the Jaguars lost 13 games, and coach Gus Bradley was fired. It was a mess, and Bortles bore the brunt of that, at times deservedly.

This season, however, the 25-year-old has been the beneficiary of the NFL’s top ground game and defense, has cut down on his turnovers, and helped the Jaguars post their first winning record since 2007.

“For years we’ve been hearing bad things about Blake and he’s coming through every time we put him out there,” Jones said. “Hopefully the doubts about him stop and the offense keeps rolling.

“We’ve heard the stuff people say about Blake but we’ve always had his back. For him to show us that he never caved in to the critics, never really gave up on himself, means a lot to us because we believed in him as much as he believed in himself and he’s really going out there and doing it.”

For how much longer? The Jaguars picked up Bortles' fifth-year option, which guarantees him $19 million for injury only in 2018. They can choose to cut him after this season ends and owe him nothing (provided he passes a physical). They can retain him and pay him the $19 million or try to work out a contract extension with more favorable terms.

There are arguments for both sides.

Why he should be back

He’s no longer a turnover machine: Every offseason story about Bortles featured this stat: He committed the most turnovers in the NFL (63) and threw the second-most interceptions (51) from 2014-16. Plus, Bortles threw 11 pick-sixes in those three seasons.

Cutting down turnovers was the Jaguars’ No. 1 priority for Bortles. He has just 11 (eight interceptions) through 13 games, which ranks 17th among NFL quarterbacks. Players with more turnovers this season include Matthew Stafford (16), Ben Roethlisberger (14), Matt Ryan (14), Marcus Mariota (14), and Russell Wilson (13).

More important, the interceptions Bortles has thrown are not the killers, inside his own 40 or in the red zone. That happened 21 times in 2014-16 (11 inside the 40, 10 in the red zone). He has thrown three inside his own 40 and none in the red zone this season.

He’s feeling more comfortable in the offense: Though Hackett was promoted to offensive coordinator midway through the 2016 season after Bradley fired Greg Olson, Hackett didn’t run his offense in the second half of the season because it was too late to change anything. So this season is really Bortles’ first in Hackett’s offense, and Hackett said Bortles has made solid, steady progress.

The more comfortable Bortles became in the offense, the better he played, Hackett said.

“The good thing about him is right now he’s not sitting there going, ‘What play is this? What am I supposed to do here?’” Hackett said. “He’s going out there and he’s owning it and he’s just having fun. He audibled a couple times [against Seattle] and got some big gains just by himself, and I think that’s where now you’re starting to get excited about what he’s doing.

“When we’re on the same page, he knows why the play is being called now. It’s not just going out there and running a play and just kind of being a robot. I think he’s now trying to understand and figure out what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Hackett said Bortles naturally will have a more complete understanding and be more comfortable in his second year in the offense.

He’s throwing to inexperienced WRs: Allen Robinson suffered a torn left ACL in the season opener; Allen Hurns has missed the past four games with a sprained right ankle and was averaging only four catches per game when he was healthy. Bortles’ No. 1 target all season has been Marqise Lee, who has 56 catches for 702 yards.

With Hurns out, the Jaguars have had to rely on undrafted rookie Keelan Cole and fourth-round pick Dede Westbrook, who missed the first nine games of the season. They’re coming off a solid two-game stretch (a combined 17 catches for 307 yards and three touchdowns), but neither is close to being the dynamic playmaker Robinson is.

Bortles has done all the things mentioned above despite not having his top receiver and getting very little production in the pass game from the tight-end position (29 catches, though Marcedes Lewis does have five TDs). With a healthy Robinson and Hurns, Cole and Westbrook gaining more experience, and possible additions via free agency and/or the draft at receiver and tight end, Bortles will have a much better group of playmakers in the pass game.

Why he shouldn't be back

He might have reached his peak: Bortles has started 58 career games and he has completed only 60.2 percent of his passes this season. His career passer rating (80.8) and completion percentage (59.1 percent) ranks 37th among all quarterbacks who have played in at least seven games since the start of the 2014 season.

Bortles will have spurts of good play -- he has been fantastic this month -- but after nearly four seasons he might have already hit his ceiling as an average quarterback. Average quarterbacks rarely win Super Bowls: Since Jeff Hostetler and Mark Rypien won Super Bowls XXV and XXVI, respectively, only two other average QBs have won titles: Trent Dilfer (XXXV) and Brad Johnson (XXXVII).

He hasn’t proved he can consistently win games late: The Jaguars have to be able to put the game on Bortles’ shoulders at times late in games and have confidence he can deliver. The team is 1-1 in those instances (the loss to the New York Jets was more because of a Lee drop) this season, and the victory is directly related to an opponent’s mental error.

Bortles threw an interception with less than three minutes to play at the Arizona 40-yard line, ruining what could have been a potential winning drive. The Jaguars did get the ball back at their own 10 with 1:14 to play, couldn’t gain a first down, and the Cardinals won on Phil Dawson's 57-yard field goal with 1 second remaining.

Two weeks earlier, Bortles threw a pair of interceptions in the final two minutes of regulation against the Los Angeles Chargers. But the Jaguars -- partly because of L.A. cornerback Tre Boston's decision to run out of bounds at the Jacksonville 10-yard line -- got the ball back and tied the game with 3 seconds remaining in regulation on a Josh Lambo field goal, then saw cornerback A.J. Bouye intercept Philip Rivers to set up Lambo’s overtime winner after Bortles and the offense stalled.

Per Pro Football Reference research, Bortles has just six fourth-quarter comebacks in his career. Marc Bulger (13), Bubby Brister (10) and Tim Couch (10) are some of the quarterbacks ahead of him on that list. David Garrard has nearly twice as many (11).

There are other options available in free agency: The Jaguars are in a unique situation because of the amount of money they've spent on high-dollar defensive free agents and contract extensions (Calais Campbell, Malik Jackson, Marcell Dareus, Telvin Smith and Bouye will combine to count $70.5 million against the salary cap in 2018). The Jaguars also will need to pony up to spend big money to re-sign Robinson and will need space in two years for a monster contract for Jalen Ramsey.

That means the window to keep an elite defense intact is pretty small, so the best way to take advantage of that is with a veteran quarterback instead of waiting for a rookie to develop. Kirk Cousins, Sam Bradford and Alex Smith (provided Kansas City opts to move on to Patrick Mahomes in 2018) are viable options. All have completed at least 62.3 percent of their passes and have passer ratings of at least 85.1 in their careers.

Cousins would be the most expensive, but he also would be a longer-term answer. Bradford and Smith would be bridge QBs, veterans with whom the Jaguars could win for several seasons before giving way to a young quarterback drafted in 2018 or 2019.