PFF Surprisingly Ranks Jaguars' Wide Receiver Group 32nd in NFL
There are countless questions facing the Jacksonville Jaguars and their roster entering the 2020 season, but one position which has been the source of optimism has been the wide receiver position.
Jacksonville's wide receiver unit is a far cry from that of the Dallas Cowboys or Tampa Bay Buccaneers considering they have just one bonafide star in DJ Chark, but the sum of the parts is encouraging ... or at least seems to be.
Despite the perceived upside of Jacksonville's wide receiver group, which is composed of Chark, veterans Chris Conley, Defe Westbrook and Keelan Cole and second-round rookie Laviska Shenault, the unit was ranked 32nd by Pro Football Focus, meaning PFF sees them as the worst unit in the NFL entering 2020.
"The Jaguars appeared to have one of the worst groups of receivers in the league heading into 2019, but the emergence of D.J. Chark eased that burden," PFF wrote. "Chark finished with a 75.8 receiving grade, good for 26th in the league, and his 424 yards on deep (20-plus yard) targets ranked seventh. Chark was the only Jaguars receiver to grade above 70.0 last season, so plenty of question marks remain."
PFF noted that Keelan Cole is a solid fourth option thanks to his 15.7 yards per reception mark over his career, and the group is also high on Shenault, who Jacksonville drafted out of Colorado with the No. 42 overall pick in April's NFL Draft.
But it is Jacksonville's No. 2 and No. 3 wide receivers, Conley and Westbrook, who PFF seems to knock enough to place the Jaguars at No. 32. It is understandable considering Westbrook has struggled to elevate his game to the level of a true playmaker through three seasons, though he is a serviceable slot.
As for Conley, he had his moments of high-level play for the Jaguars last year on his way to a career year in which he caught 47 passes for 775 yards (16.5 yards per reception) and five touchdowns. But Conley also had his issues with consistency, with PFF stating he had dropped 13% of his catchable targets, which was the seventh-highest rate in the league according to their data.
"The Jaguars need a few things to fall into place in order to rise to the top half of the league, including another big step forward from Chark, and Shenault looking like the healthy 2018 version that was a potential top-15 overall pick," PFF concluded.
On the surface, it is hard to disagree that Jacksonville's wide receiver group is far from being an above-average unit. Conley, Westbrook and Cole have al flashed in the past but that is what it has been -- just flashes. Westbrook hasn't taken the next step to prove he is more than just a run of the mill slot receiver, while Conley needs to be more consistent in terms of catching and Cole simply needs to find the field more.
On the other hand, Chark is a legitimate No. 1 wide receiver after recording over 1,000 receiving yards and hauling in eight touchdowns on his way to a Pro Bowl season last year. Shenault is intriguing thanks to a college career in which he dominated while he was healthy, but Chark is currently the receiver who makes Jacksonville's offense go.
“Well, I think that he is playing with a load of confidence right now and that is very exciting. He’s got the skill set with the size, speed and ability to come in and out of cuts," offensive coordinator Jay Gruden said about Chark in May.
"I think we can do a little bit more with him. I’d like to get him inside and do some more things with him in the slot. But he’s an excellent specimen. And the thing that I have come to know about DJ in the limited time I got to meet him was that he’s hungry. He wants to be great and when you have the athletic qualities that he has and then the desire to be great, he’s going to have a very bright future. Now it is our job to get him acclimated to this offense and get him comfortable where he can go out there and play fast because he is a big, strong, fast, hungry kid and we got to give him the ball.”
Thanks to the inclusion of Chark alone, it is hard to see how the Jaguars could be ranked below receiving groups such as the New York Jets, New England Patriots, Baltimore Ravens or Washington. There is a strong argument to make that Jacksonville's wide receiver group is in the bottom half of the league due to question marks with Conley, Westbrook and even Shenault, but not quite as strong of an argument to rank them as the league's worst receiver group.
Still, the 2020 season (as long as it is played) will tell us the answer. Whether the Jaguars' receiver group takes a step forward in their development and become more consistent as an all-around unit, or Chark once again singlehandedly carries the group, will come down to the unit's performance this fall.
