The Different Roles For the Jaguars' Receivers and Its Cohesive Pay-Off
Players make plays; sometimes it’s as simple as putting them in the right position to do so. As the Jacksonville Jaguars prepare for the 2021 NFL season, the hope is for that to become the case for the receiving unit.
“There’s a lot of people, a lot of receivers in our group that can have different abilities and can put them in different places,” explains Jags receiver Marvin Jones Jr. “You put Laviska [Shenault Jr.] in the backfield and watch him work and stuff like that.”
Second-year receiver Shenault has the evasive abilities that make him perfect for a backfield scat cat. But Jones comment opens the door to wondering, what all different places might be best for the different Jags receivers?
*For the sake of brevity, we’ll only focus on those that have been serious contributors in the past or were drafted as rookie receivers in 2021.
Laviska Shenault Jr.
As Jones alluded to and 2020 demonstrated, Shenault can be a do-it-all receiver. He even lined up at running back close to 20 times. Shenault’s twitch, vision and speed make him an ideal chess piece, able to move around based on best matchups and mismatches. According to Pro Football Focus, Shenault spent 28% of his snaps in 2020 in the slot, 69% out wide, and 1% inline. He has the wheels to play outside, the moves to work out of the slot, and the big body—an asset Urban Meyer noted recently—to bulldozer someone in the trenches if he needs to take a handoff and/or improvise his routes.
Marvin Jones
The veteran of the group—and the oldest on the team until tight end Tim Tebow was signed—Jones has spent nine years in the league thus far. He’s an ideal outside receiver, which is where he’s spent 81% of his career snaps (according to PFF). He averages 13.9 yards on depth of target. With Trevor Lawrence in the pocket this fall, his cannon arm should be able to take full advantage of the threat that Marvin Jones can bring.
DJ Chark
The Jaguars saving grace the past three years, Pro-Bowler DJ Chark returns as the Jaguars star receiver. He’s made a home on the edge, where he can out-twitch any corner and out-jump any safety. His field and situational awareness, especially in the red-zone, make him a consistent scoring threat and quarterback’s best friend. Even as the unit is expanded to add more speed and depth, Chark’s position shouldn’t change.
Phillip Dorsett
A former first-round pick, Dorsett is an older receiver who suffered a foot injury and missed the 2020 season. This will be his sixth season in the league. His stats from 2019 though actually show a receiver who can be yet another outside threat for the Jags (he’s spent 75% of his time there). Back in April, Meyer coupled Dorsett with Jones as the duo needed to address the Jaguars' need for more speed.
Collin Johnson
Meyer promised last month that Johnson would be playing “bigger than he did last year.” That doesn’t mean the staff will move him to tight end—something Meyer admitted he considered—but the coach does feel Johnson will be “right in the middle” of the coming offense. Like Jones, Chark, and Dorsett, Johnson is primarily an outside receiver. But Meyer’s willingness to at least consider moving him closer to the line indicates the staff is ok lining up the 6-foot-6, 220-pound athletic freak inside, which may be where he starts to appear given the crowded unit on the edge. His insane vertical though makes it hard to keep Johnson off of a corner matchup, even if it’s as a backup to Chark and Jones.
Jalen Camp
The rookie receiver is not an impact guy in his unit, according to Meyer, but could be an instant impact on special teams. However, that’s ok; Camp played basketball until ninth grade and then attended Georgia Tech in the midst of an offensive change. He’s still scratching the surface of what all he can be. But he put up a bench press of 30 reps at Tech’s Pro Day, a number that would’ve been a receiver record at the NFL Scouting Combine. He appeared on Bruce Feldman’s annual Freak’s List, a spot well earned, and has time to adjust to the game given the depth ahead of him. But his learning curve could also work in the Jaguars favor. For a guy still learning the position, the staff can play around with Camp at multiple positions and in different roles, figuring out what he does best.
Jamal Agnew
Agnew, while appearing in 46 games for the Detroit Lions over four seasons, is primarily a special teams player. He has the most punt returns for touchdowns (four) since 2017, the fourth-most punt return yards (857) and the fourth-highest punt return average (11.6). He is the only player to record five total return touchdowns from 2017-20 (four punt returns, one kick return). He’ll most likely fill the same role with the Jaguars, with the coaching staff going as far as to say so when he was signed as a free agent this offseason. If he does enter games as a receiver, the 5-10, 190 pound player—with his special teams vision—will most likely be of use in the slot role.
Wild Card: Travis Etienne
The fact that Etienne lined up as a receiver during rookie mini-camp shouldn't be taken too seriously. There was nothing for he, as the lone running back, to do other than hand out Gatorade. So the staff wanted to see what they had. Now, if nothing else, the back can also take snaps at receiver. Given Meyer's openness about wanting Kadarius Toney, it's not hard to imagine Etienne playing in that type of slot role at times.
No matter what different roles each receiver plays in this group, Jones feels certain they can play off one another, creating a harmonious unit.
“We’ve spent a lot of time together, probably almost two months now, so it’s been good. Everybody’s going around flying fast and making big plays as we should and as we knew we were going to do.”
