It's hard to tell with Bortles at this point. He really doesn't look good on a play to play basis but he's starting as a rookie for a team with no expectations and it's hard for him to do anything absolutely defining in that situation. Troy Aikman did not look good in a similar situation in 1989 and he had Jimmy Johnson and Norv turner on his side that year.
I don't think he looks good on a game by game basis - he's looked awful - he's got weapons, but doesn't have a good offensive line.
Most QB's who look awful as rookies are actually awful. It's the few, like Eli Manning, that make the jump to a decent QB level that make us wonder. It's actually unfair to bring people like Elway and Aikman into the conversation because they faced much more formidable concentrated defenses (no salary cap to restrict talent on a unit) and they played at a time when the rules were much more favorable for defenses. Eli may be the only QB since 2000 who looked just terrible as a rookie but then turned into a QB capable of winning games over a period of years. In truth the Giants haven't been that good though. Eli is only 88-74 over the course of his career, with of course the two 4 game runs to a championship also on his resume. Matthew Stafford looked pretty terrible as a rookie also but despite his good performances since his teams are only 29-33 since his rookie season.
