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3 Observations on the Impact of Jamal Agnew’s Injury on the Jaguars’ Offense

Just how badly will the Jaguars' offense miss Jamal Agnew following his season-ending hip injury?

The Jacksonville Jaguars were dealt a tough blow on Monday when the team announced starting receiver and returner Jamal Agnew would be placed on injured reserve with a season-ending hip injury. 

It wasn't long ago that Agnew was merely a special teams player with a marginal role on offense, but Agnew had grown into arguably the offense's top playmaker over the last month. Now that Agnew is on the shelf for the rest of the year, however, things have changed throughout the Jaguars' offense. As such, here are three ways we think his inj

The Jaguars will need a new slot receiver -- it should be Laviska Shenault 

Urban Meyer didn't have much to reveal on Monday for how the Jaguars plan to replace Jamal Agnew in their offensive scheme. It is a fair question, too, considering Agnew was not only the team's starting slot receiver but was also a player the team frequently designed plays for out of the backfield. Agnew had become a smaller version of what they hoped Travis Etienne could be in many ways and now, the Jaguars are missing that type of speed on their offense.

"We’re working on that now. We’ve still got playmakers. We just have to really utilize everyone’s skill set and do a really good job with that," Urban Meyer said on Monday after news of Agnew's injury. 

The best option the Jaguars have to replace Agnew? The same player who Agnew took over for in the slot -- Laviska Shenault. Shenault spent the first month of the season as the Jaguars' slot receiver with DJ Chark lined up on the outside across from Marvin Jones. Since Chark's injury in Week 4, Shenault has spent the vast majority of his time on the outside. Shenault has played 74 snaps in the slot in the last six games, while playing 200 snaps on the outside. 

“Well when you look at the makeup of the receiver room, you know we felt like so when we lost DJ [Chark Jr.] we really needed a guy to go outside. When you look at the group, our preference is to have a bigger guy that goes outside that holds down that x position," Jaguars offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell said last Thursday. 

"We have a little more of f’s on our team. You know with [Jamal] Agnew, Agnew was coming on with Tavon [Austin] with those type of guys that are really more of the inside guys. It was more out of necessity. Not sure it helps Laviska that much and so we will continue to move those guys around and work them at different spots and get [Laviska Shenault] back inside at times. Agnew has been doing a really nice job for us you know and has some explosive capabilities as well, but I think it was more the personnel that we had that drove that to put him on the outside.”

That personnel has now changed yet again. Shenault has a better skill set for the slot than the outside and the Jaguars now have a gaping hole staring at them both in the slot and at X. Shenault can fill one of those spots, and should be allowed to do so. The Jaguars would have to look to Laquon Treadwell, John Brown or others as their starting X receiver, but this is the kind of adjustment the Jaguars should make. 

Expect a larger share of snaps for Laquon Treadwell, with Jeff Cotton Jr. as an outside candidate to make the game day roster 

The Jaguars were already doing a lot of mixing and matching with their receiver room before Agnew's injury, frequently rotating both Tavon Austin and Laquon Treadwell into contests. The Jaguars never gave any of these players bigger roles than Agnew, however, with Agnew always out-snapping and seeing more targets than any member of that group. Now that Agnew is out of the picture, a unit that was already seeing plenty of mixing and matching is going to see even more, with Treadwell making the most sense.

“Oh man, he has been coming on. First of all, I love the guy. He has a warrior mentality," Meyer said about Treadwell last Friday. 

"I know it has not been perfect for him in his career. I asked him to do some things this summer to make the team and he did everything. He is a big physical receiver with great hands and a really good guy. I love him and he is tough, tough, tough. Those are usually great qualities."

With the trade deadline passed and Tyron Johnson no longer on the roster, the Jaguars' options are slim. Expect for Treadwell to see an expanded role, especially after he was called the "culture" of the wide receiver room by Urban Meyer last Friday. Treadwell is the most likely player to benefit from Agnew's absence, but Jeff Cotton Jr. makes sense as well as a potential call-up. The Jaguars have more options for the slot than they do on the outside currently, which could be good news for big-bodied wideouts such as Treadwell and Cotton, who was a preseason star but who has been plastered to the special teams unit all season.

An already broken Jaguars' offense will now face even worse field position

For an offense as bad as the Jaguars' current offense is, every little negative is simply that much more impactful. The Jaguars couldn't stand any more injuries at wide receiver, but the injury to Agnew impacts the offense in more ways than just taking a key playmaker off the field. With Agnew now off the field on special teams, where he has proven to be a dangerous kick and punt returner, the Jaguars' already NFL-worst starting field position will likely get even worse. 

As things stand today, the Jaguars simply don't have many options to replace Agnew in the return game, especially after Austin muffed a punt yesterday to allow a turnover. The game was already over, but that just shows how much a struggling Jaguars offense can likely get even worse. Agnew wasn't helping much in this department to begin with, so that speaks volumes of how much worse it can actually get for a team that is ranked No. 32 in average starting field position (25.33) per Football Outsiders