Jacksonville Jaguars Bye Week Report Card: Wide Receiver and Tight End

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The Jacksonville Jaguars enter the bye week at 2-5, a stark contrast from where they’ve been 7 games into recent seasons. While 2-5 would be a discouraging record for most teams, it signals improvement for a team that only won 7 games in the last 2 seasons, and it’s somehow good enough to stay in the hunt in a downright horrific AFC South.

As we slow things down for the bye week, we can take some time to look back and grade out each position group to help piece together how the Jaguars got to this point.

Let’s start with a maybe the most encouraging position group on the roster – the pass catchers.

Here are each of the wide receivers’ and tight ends’ statistics after 7 games:

Stats:

Wide Receivers:

Allen Robinson -34 receptions, 586 yards, 6 touchdowns
Allen Hurns – 31 receptions, 513 yards, 5 touchdowns
Bryan Walters – 19 receptions, 228 yards, 0 touchdowns
Rashad Greene – 9 receptions, 35 yards, 1 touchdown
Marqise Lee – 3 receptions, 40 yards, 0 touchdowns

Tight Ends:

Marcedes Lewis – 8 receptions, 61 yards, 0 touchdowns
Julius Thomas – 10 receptions, 102 yards, 1 touchdown

The Jaguars have found themselves a pair of bona fide NFL receivers in second year players Allen Robinson and Allen Hurns. There was plenty of hype surrounding Allen Robinson in year 2 and he’s delivered thus far, producing at a Pro Bowl rate and developing into a legitimate number 1 wide receiver with utility at every part of the field. His ascension is no surprise, but the pleasant shocker has been the massive improvement made by Allen Hurns as a sophomore. Posing as just good story in 2014 when he made the roster as an undrafted free agent, Hurns has been just as prominent on the offense as Robinson, and he’s done so with considerably less targets (51 targets to Robinson’s 71). Both players are on pace for 1,000+ yard seasons and 10 touchdowns – that’s downright unbelievable given the struggles of that position in recent years.

After the top 2, the Jaguars are trying to find a reliable 3rd option. Bryan Walters has been adequate and filled his role well as a slot receiver, but the Jaguars clearly would be prefer to have Marqise Lee involved more. Hampered by lingering soft tissue injuries, there’s a good chance Lee won’t be on the field again until 2016. That should give rookie Rashad Greene plenty of chances to find his role in the offense once he gets back from temporary injured reserve.

Transitioning over to tight end, the Jaguars can’t be satisfied by what they’ve been getting from that position group. Marcedes Lewis has gone from mediocre to bad this year, serving as a liability in the passing game and less than useful as an inline blocker. Lewis was involved in at least 2 of Blake Bortles‘ interceptions this season, and he just looks slow when he runs into the open field. Luckily Julius Thomas is back, but the Jaguars need to find a way to phase Lewis out of the offense even more.

Thomas has only been active for 3 weeks now, but he’s been completely ineffective in 2 of them. That doesn’t worry me too much, as there seems to be a clear plan and intent to get him worked into the gameplan. He should improve as we move past the bye week.

Bye Week Grades: Wide Receivers – B

Allen Robinson – A-mius
Allen Hurns – A
Bryan Walters – B
Rashad Greene – Incomplete
Marqise Lee – Incomplete

Bye Week Grades: Tight Ends – D

Marcedes Lewis – F
Julius Thomas – C-minus

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