Analyzing Contract Details For Patriots WR Marqise Lee

At the end of April the New England Patriots signed veteran wide receiver Marqise Lee, who was released by the Jacksonville Jaguars just days before.

We now have the details of Lee's contract with the six-time Super Bowl champions, courtesy of Ben Volin of the Boston Globe, so let's take a look at how it is structured:

Contract length: 1 year

Base salary: $910,000 (veteran minimum)

Guaranteed: $300,000

Worth up to: $1.0475

Cap hit: $887,500

Over the last two seasons Lee made nearly $17 million from Jacksonville. Unfortunately, his production didn't match his cost, as he caught 59 balls for 720 yards and three touchdowns over that same time span, with a majority of that production coming in 2018 since his missed most of the 2019 season. Lee had 174 receptions for 2,184 yards and eight touchdowns in five seasons with the Jaguars.

Back in April when Lee signed with New England, I asked John Shipley of SI's Jaguar Report about Lee. This is the gist of what he had to say:

Marqise Lee has six games played and three catches in two years. He's had injury issues his entire career (knee and shoulder issues sidelined him in 2018 and 2019, respectively). Lee is not a deep threat, but he can win along the sideline. He's more of an underneath/intermediate target because he's more quick than fast. He's also an amazing blocker on the boundary.

Adding a player of Lee's talent into the mix to spark an even stronger competition this summer at wideout is a standard move by Bill Belichick. That position lacks overall depth in New England, so adding Lee is a low risk, high reward option for them. However, it is intriguing to see that Lee is also an exceptional boundary blocker, which could prove vital if Belichick and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels opt to take a run-heavy approach with whichever quarterback they put under center.

If Lee could give similar production to what we saw from Phillip Dorsett during his tenure with the Patriots, then he will be well worth his contract.