Agnew's Ascension, Shenault's New Role, and Johnson's Next Steps: Breaking Down the Jaguars' WRs
Few position groups on the Jacksonville Jaguars' roster entered 2021 with as much hype as the wide receiver room. Whether it was inside Jacksonville or on national pages, many pointed to the Jaguars' receiver group as a big plus for No. 1 overall pick and rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
But through six games, the Jaguars have seen dramatic change at the receiver position. After the entire team got off to a slow start through the air, the receiver room has seen its fair amount of shake-ups over the last three weeks as Lawrence has settled in and upped his game.
Losing DJ Chark to a season-ending ankle injury in Week 4 was the biggest change to a non-stop evolving receiver group, sending ripples across the entire unit. From Laviska Shenault to Jamal Agnew to Tyron Johnson, things changed for virtually every receiver not named Marvin Jones.
So, what is there to make of the Jaguars' wideouts sans Chark? How has the rest of the room stepped up or have to make adjustments in his absence? We break down the current picture of all three receivers, with help from Jaguars wide receivers coach Sanjay Lal, who spoke with Jaguar Report last week.
"I believe we're getting better. If you pull up game one to game now, the play intensity, that's the thing that jumps off the table most to me," Lal said.
"So we talked about we got to do better on scramble drills, of coming back to the ball. Trevor's such a good scramble quarterback, we can make some big plays in the scramble game. We want to get body on body, which means when a ball is caught, we turn and block someone ... So that and then continue our juice in the run game and attention to detail."
Jamal Agnew
Shenault and Jones were each already starters for the Jaguars when Chark was injured, so his absence never meant they would see the field more frequently, even if it did change their roles. Instead, the player whose Chark's injuries opened up more playing time for has been kick/punt returner Jamal Agnew.
With Chark injured, Shenault has been moved to Chark's spot at the 'X' receiver spot, leaving the slot open for Agnew. Agnew has played offense before ... but not for long, spending his first three years in the NFL as a cornerback before moving to receiver last season.
"Relatively new to the position, but the intensity you see on his returns is how he's approached learning that position. So a real testament to him," Lal told Jaguar Report about his new starting slot receiver.
"Like he attacks in the classroom, he attacks a film study. He's really diligent on his techniques, he works on them extra. And then he does have the natural ability to make tough catches as we saw in this last game. He's just done a great job."
Agnew played sparingly on offense before Chark's injuries, playing just 28 offensive snaps during the first four games. And with the Lions as a full-time receiver last year, Agnew was on the field for just 199 snaps over a 16-game period (12.43 snaps a game). Over the last two games alone, Agnew has played 84 snaps (42 snaps per game). He has never seen a role with as much volume on offense as the one he is faced with now, but he has also never played better.
"It started in OTAs. You know, I thought, 'okay, here's a returner'. And most returners don't really want to play wideout. They want to either focus on returns or one of the other. He was 'like, no I'm gonna be a really good receiver in this league,' Lal said.
"And he showed glimpses in OTAs, he showed more in training camp and now he's really come on with the added reps.
As Lal explained, Agnew is the first slot receiver he has coached who "truly wants to do both" when it comes to excelling out of the slot and as a return man. He hasn't let himself become pigeonholed to any one role, even if he is arguably the NFL's best return man today.
That is a big reason Agnew has come on strong for the Jaguars in Chark's absence. Over the last two weeks, the former return specialist has caught 11 of 13 targets for 119 yards, leading the team in yards per route run (No. 39 in the NFL) during that period, per PFF.
Agnew's signature performance, of course, was against the Dolphins in Jacksonville's 23-20 win in Week 6. Agnew created multiple chunk plays for the Jaguars, but he did more than just give Lawrence a reliable outlet. Instead, the former cornerback gave the Jaguars some inside information that helped them prepare for the Dolphins' defense.
"I would say the thing that's lost is his defensive background. He can read coverages," Lal said. "Like this last game, they played the New England system, which they played in Detroit. So all week he was saying, 'oh, here's who they want to bracket and hey, if you go two yards inside the hash and turn your eyes back, they're going to undercut,' So he knows all the nuances because he was a defender in that system. So he can definitely bring that to his game."
Laviska Shenault
No player in the Jaguars' offense has seen their role change more over the last month than Shenault. While Agnew has seen an increase in playing time, Shenault has been largely thrust into a different position altogether, moving from the slot and into Chark's role at the 'X' spot.
To give a reflection of just how much Shenault's role has changed, look no further than his snap counts. Per PFF, Shenault spent 151 snaps in the slot over the first four games, compared to just 31 on the outside. But over the last two weeks, that ratio has flipped. With Chark out of the lineup in Week's 5 and 6, Shenault played a combined 19 snaps in the slot, while spending 84 on the outside.
"Definitely becoming more professional about everything. He had to step into a position that he hasn't really played," Lal told Jaguar Report.
"He's now the X and with that formationally, we can move him into the slot, so now he's not only a slot but an X and all the nuances of playing that position are now things on his plate. He's done a great job of really being professional about studying and learning the position because it is pretty radically different than what he was doing."
What makes X so different from the slot in any offense is clear. Shenault is now being sent on deep routes more frequently and is seeing far many more isolation chances against cornerbacks in one-on-one coverage than he ever saw from the slot. He has had to fight cornerbacks to get open more frequently than he did from the slot, a byproduct of playing on the line of scrimmage compared to in the slot and without a cornerback getting their hands on him early.
That has led to extra challenges for Shenault, especially when it comes to separating. While the tape suggests that Shenault has struggled at times with the transition, Lal is confident in Shenault's trajectory and his willingness to attack the role.
"So extra film study, extra studying on the playbook, all that, he's so willing and he wants to -- he wants to move around even more," Lal said. "Every day he says well let me do this, let me do this. So we're taking it in steps but he's completely willing."
If there is one positive to point to when it comes to Shenault's recent play, though, it is his performance in high-pressure situations. Shenault caught three of the most important passes for the Jaguars against the Dolphins, converting two fourth-downs on scoring drives and gaining 12 yards on the second-to-last offensive play of the game while the Jaguars faced 3rd-and-20.
Shenault has had his bumps at X, but Lal has also seen him make clutch catches that proved to be difference-makers in a win -- things he hopes to see become a pattern with his young receiver.
"You can say many plays won us that game but those those were game winners. And then the last two catches to get us into field goal range, he caught both of them," Lal said.
"We were at 3rd-and-20 and he catches two catches and gets us 21 yards. Third and a fourth down. So he can be clutch. He has another step to go to be even more clutch because I know he can he do it."
Tyron Johnson
When Chark went down with his ankle injury, many assumed that his natural replacement would be former Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Tyron Johnson. After all, it was only a year ago that the speedy Johnson was one of the NFL's most dangerous and productive deep threats. Who better to take Chark's place as the team's field stretcher?
That hasn't exactly happened, however. Instead of playing a larger role, Johnson has been glued to the bench, playing only nine snaps in Week 4 (the week Chark was injured), losing out on snaps to Tavon Austin. The next week, Austin once again got snaps over Johnson, who played zero snaps. And in Week 6 against the Dolphins, Johnson was made a healthy scratch, not even making the active game day roster.
So, what exactly does Johnson need to do to see the field more, especially with the Jaguars missing their top deep threat in Chark? As Lal would explain, it comes down to attention to detail when it comes to Johnson's routes.
"Yeah, we just need him to run routes with the detail that we require in this offense. It's very specific in terms of splits, top of the route landmarks; you have to hit them on point with speed to have the play develop the way it should," Lal said. "And he's getting there but it's a work in progress right now."
That is one of the difficult parts of being a receiver, especially in the Jaguars' scheme. Things are moving at non-stop speed and passing windows close in the blink of an eye, especially when a rookie quarterback is the trigger man under center. As a result, that is the area Johnson will have to improve in if he wants to see a larger role in a post-Chark offense.
"It is just being disciplined when guys are running in front of you and you have to avoid, you still have to get to those landmarks and that's the challenge with that position," Lal said.
