JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Charlie Taaffe wanted to be sure.

He thought things looked off, but he needed to get some slow-motion clips of Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles to confirm what he was seeing every week on television. Once he did, he no longer had any doubts.

Bortles' throwing mechanics are a mess.

"I watched him on TV and I said, ‘Something doesn't look right here,'" said Taaffe, Bortles' offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Central Florida. "Sometimes watching full speed you can't confirm what you see because it happened so fast.

"I don't know how he got to the point he's at right now. I certainly haven't seen it previously in his Jaguars career."

NFL draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr., who studied Bortles intensely prior to the 2014 draft, was a little less diplomatic when describing what he has seen from Bortles through seven games this season.

"There's no fluidity," Kiper said. "It's painful to watch him throw. He doesn't look good.

"It's a weird thing and to watch [his throwing motion], if artistic is a 10, he's down at a 0 or 1."

Bortles' mechanics were never textbook, but he worked hard between his first and second NFL seasons to fix his throwing motion by spending two weeks at noted throwing coach Tom House's 3DQB academy in California. Bortles shortened his windup, lengthened his follow-through and cleaned up his footwork.

And he was better in 2015. He still held the ball too low (see accompanying photo) and his delivery still had a bit of a loop at times, but he was more fundamentally sound and went on to set franchise records for passing yards (4,428) and passing touchdowns (35).

Now? Bortles looks a lot like he did in 2014 and it's the reason why he, and the Jaguars' offense, is struggling.

Bortles has completed 60 percent of his passes for 1,904 yards and 12 touchdowns with nine interceptions, but seven of those TD passes have come with the Jaguars trailing by double digits. That was the case last Thursday against Tennessee, when he threw for 337 yards and three TDs. Bortles was particularly bad in the first half of that game, missing wide-open receivers, throwing behind others and even short-hopping a few throws.

In reviewing film from this and last season and talking to Taaffe, Kiper and several people close to Bortles, it's clear that Bortles has two big mechanical flaws right now: He's holding the ball too low and he's winding up like a Little League third baseman trying to get his throw to first base without bouncing. Combined, the issues are throwing off his timing and accuracy, and frustrating him, his teammates and his coaches.

Bortles is holding the ball at his hip or lower with his palm facing the ground as he drops back in the pocket. When he starts his delivery, he brings the ball behind his body and up before making the throw.

Bortles should be holding the ball around his shoulder, which is a 1½- to 2-foot difference, and push the ball slightly away from his body to start his delivery. That's a significantly quicker release.

"It's just making everything late," said Taaffe, who now runs QB Country, a quarterback training and development company in Orlando. "Plus, I think he's a little out of whack with his weight transfer. Where he's starting the ball from is just slowing everything down for him.

"In that league, a split second or tenths of a second may often make the difference between a completion and an incompletion."

So how did Bortles' mechanics deteriorate so quickly? When learning a new skill, repetition leads to mastery. In athletics, it's a matter of muscle memory -- doing something over and over until it becomes habit.

"I don't know how he got to the point he's at right now. I certainly haven't seen it previously in his Jaguars career." Charlie Taaffe on Blake Bortles

Bortles didn't slip in terms of the amount of work he did in the offseason. He spent six days at 3DQB and threw several times a week with his receivers. However, little by little he slipped back into his previous bad habits. Things got even worse, though, and Bortles was even sloppier than he was as a rookie.

The Jaguars coaching staff noticed in training camp and brought it to Bortles' attention, even showing him some clips to help make the point. Bortles tried to fight through it -- there may have been a bit of stubbornness at play here, too -- but he was unable to return to his 2015 form. Once the season started, there was not enough time after game-planning, meetings, film study and practice to do an intense reworking of his throwing motion.

But Bortles has tried. He spent 15 minutes every day going through his delivery in front of a mirror -- and still does -- but that didn't carry over onto the field. He finally called Adam Dedeaux, whom he worked with at 3DQB and had him fly in this week. The two spent parts of Monday and Tuesday working on lower-body mechanics and footwork, which Bortles said would help him clean up his delivery.

Dedeaux declined an interview request through the Jaguars.

There was a noticeable difference in the way Bortles threw the ball during the 20-minute period when the media was allowed to watch Thursday's practice. Bortles held the ball at his shoulder and his delivery was quicker.

Nobody thinks Bortles has completely solved his issues and will immediately be better mechanically, but the hope is for incremental improvement to come as he continues to focus on what he worked on with Dedeaux.

"It's one of those things when I go work with those guys in the offseason and am feeling good and then I get away from them, and no matter how much stuff you retain and remember and continue to go through, there's always a couple of things you forget," Bortles said. "I think it's always cool, and I know really good for me to have him come out here and just kind of hear all the stuff. It's kind of a refreshment and kind of getting me back to where I need to be.

"I think it'll help in general. For me, it will be a never-ending process in trying to get better and somewhat maintain my mechanics. That will always be something I have to work and continue to do, which is awesome. I enjoy doing it. I enjoy working on it. I think it will really help out in all phases of what we do."

The problem, Kiper said, is that Bortles should be beyond these issues in his third season. He shouldn't have to be working on his mechanics, and that's taking time away from his overall development.

Bortles doesn't have the luxury that Aaron Rodgers did when he sat behind Brett Favre for three seasons in Green Bay. Rodgers reworked his delivery during those three seasons, but obviously didn't have to do it while trying to win games each week.

"This is not something you should be tweaking and trying to fix at this stage," Kiper said. "You should be rolling in Year 3. You should be clearly established as one of the best young quarterbacks in the league.

"Bortles has been in the league three years. Now are you going to change things? That's a little different than what happened with Aaron Rodgers. I'm not giving up on how they can work with him and recreate what we saw flashes of during his career. I'm not giving up on that, but there's work to be done during this offseason to get him back to being a consistent quarterback."

It has to be done during the offseason, Taaffe said. The work Bortles did with Dedeaux may help short term, but he needs to make working on his mechanics a priority after this season. It will be a critical time for Bortles because his poor play this season is casting plenty of doubt as to whether he can be the franchise quarterback the Jaguars drafted him to be.

"I know Blake's worked really hard in the offseason and had a great year a year ago and made some real progress," Taaffe said. "Obviously he's kind of struggling with some things right now. I do think they're correctable. The good news is he obviously recognized there's an issue because he's brought help in to work with him.

"Hopefully he'll get it corrected."