Marqise Lee: Getting back into the swing of things

Marqise Lee was a full go for Jacksonville Jaguars practice on Friday and that’s huge for the young receiver.

Expected to have his reps limited during training camp (no promise that won’t happen), it was nice to see the receiver able to come out and participate with the team.

As noted by others, what was more important to see was that Lee was able to really go after the ball and pop right back up after diving and going for balls.

It isn’t just his ability to participate actively despite being limited by injury so far this offseason, but also Lee’s ability to gain separation against Jaguars defenders. While the Jacksonville secondary wasn’t the most intimidating in the world last season, Lee was able to find separation and get after some balls with room. That’s big for the receiver as he struggled to dominate coverage in his rookie season.

Unfortunately, some of those balls were drops.

Lee’s struggles last season (he had the third highest drop rate on the team, according to Pro Football Focus) need to be overcome for Blake Bortles to continue his development at quarterback and for the progress of the passing game on the whole. While the emphasis at this point seems to be on getting the route down correctly and running it well, it would be nice to see Lee come down with everything in his vicinity.

Then again, that could be a pipe dream.

Basing a full opinion on Marqise Lee’s progress at this point would foolhardy. The sample size is too small and he’s just getting back into developing timing and practicing fully for the Jaguars. Training camp in the NFL is rife with overreaction and we don’t want to look into any of this too much at this point.

The prime takeaway here is that Lee is back in the swing of things for the Jaguars. He’s feeling good and looks like he could be developing. That’s the takeaway and reading too far into any of this stuff after just a couple days may cause us all to go crazy by the end.

It’s good to have Lee back on the field and I’m excited to see what kind of progress has been made during the preseason. Keep an eye on him.

Next: How is Blake Bortles looking?

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