It’s too early to say whether Marqise Lee will factor into the Jacksonville Jaguars plans this season. His first game of the preseason did offer a glimmer of hope, though, as he recorded four receptions for 49 yards. Is it possible that Lee plays a role in the offense this season?
Coming out of USC, Lee was a highly touted prospect going into the 2014 NFL Draft. The Jacksonville Jaguars thought highly of him selecting him with the 7th pick of the 2nd round. Unfortunately, things haven’t been great for Lee during his time in Jacksonville.
For the most part, Lee has severely underperformed as a Jacksonville Jaguar. His rookie season only says him record 37 catches for 422 yards. His sophomore campaign wasn’t much better, as he was only able to muster up 15 receptions for 191 yards.
Lee only started one game in 2015, down from 8 his rookie year. A lot of that had to do with the emergence of Allen Robinson and Allen Hurns, who took a significant amount of playing time from Lee. Another reason for his disappointment has been the inability to stay on the football field. Lee appeared in only 13 games his rookie year, and 10 for his sophomore season.
Despite being the forgotten man in the Jacksonville offense, Lee has a chance to carve out a role in the offense this season. With Hurns and Robinson getting most of the attention as the X and Z receivers, Lee could serve at the team’s slot receiver. He is more than capable of being a possession receiver and showed in the team’s first preseason game that he could catch the ball in clutch situations.
It’s best not to get overly excited about Lee at this point. The preseason will go at a long way in determining his role in the offense. However, he made a good case in his first action of the season but still knows there is a lot of work to be done, as reported by Hays Carlyon of Jacksonville.com.
“I need to continue to build from here,” Lee said. “My main focus is staying healthy. As an offense, we have to build. We had a lot of errors out there that we need to improve on and we will over the preseason.”
Can Lee establish himself as a threat in the Jacksonville Jaguars offense? It’s going to be an interesting storyline to follow as the preseason goes along.
Follow Daniel James Gentile on Twitter @dgentleman9288