The Jacksonville Jaguars have spent this offseason adding depth and talent and the roster looks significantly different than it did at the end of the 2020 season. Even though there are plenty of new faces, there are a few returning players that should have a big impact on the team in 2021, and one of them is four-year wide receiver DJ Chark Jr.
A second-round selection in 2018, Chark has been one of the best skill-position players the Jags have had in recent years. Over the last three seasons, he’s hauled in 140 receptions for 1,888 yards and 13 touchdowns. You may be wondering how that kind of production would qualify as good, but you have to keep in mind that the LSU product had a quiet rookie campaign, catching just 14 receptions for 174 yards and no touchdowns.
Things changed in Chark’s sophomore season, when he amassed 73 receptions for 1,008 yards and eight trips to the end zone. His production in 2019 earned him a Pro Bowl designation and looked ready to join the next wide receiver tier, but then, 2020 happened.
Jacksonville had one of the worst offenses in the NFL and suffered from inconsistency at the quarterback position last year. Their poor quarterback play impacted the Chark and the wide receiver corps negatively. The 2018 second-round pick finished the 2020 season with 53 receptions for 796 and five touchdowns.
While these numbers are less than optimal for a number-one receiver, there are reasons to believe Chark can bounce back in 2021 and play at a Pro-Bowl level once again. For that reason, here are three reasonable expectations for him in the upcoming season.
Jacksonville Jaguars WR DJ Chark will record his second 1,000-yard season.
Chark still played at a high level in 2020 but the revolving door at the quarterback position didn’t help matters. You don’t start three different signal-callers in a season because you like to experiment. You do it because you don’t have a solution at the position, and that’s what Jacksonville went through last year when the trio of Gardner Minshew II, Jake Luton, and Mike Glennon took turns at quarterback.
Things are going to be different this year though. The Jaguars now have a franchise quarterback in Trevor Lawrence, whom they took with the first overall selection in the 2021 NFL Draft. With the Clemson standout at the helm, Jacksonville’s offense should see an uptick in production and Chark should be one of the biggest beneficiaries even though free-agent acquisition Marvin Jones Jr. and Laviska Shenault Jr. will also have a big role in the passing game.
In fact, Jones’ presence should help Chark see fewer double teams and force opposing defenses to spread their coverage. Moreover, there’s a realistic chance Lawrence will throw for around 4,000 yards. Last year’s Offensive Rookie of the Year, Justin Herbert, was 396-of-595 for 4,336 and 31 touchdowns.
Let’s say Lawrence finishes the season with 4,000 yards, it wouldn’t be outlandish for Chark to register a bit over 1,000 receiving yards. Back in 2019, Nick Foles and Minshew combined for 4,007 passing yards and Chark had 1,008 of them. For that reason, the odds of him having his second 1,000-yard receiving season are high, but how many touchdowns will he catch in 2021?
DJ Chark will score nine receiving touchdowns for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
DJ Chark had just five receiving touchdowns in 2020 after scoring eight the season before but he will register a career-high nine this upcoming season. Rookie Justin Herbert had 31 passing touchdowns in 2020 while Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray, 2019’s Offensive Rookie of the Year, had 20 the season before.
Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that rookie Trevor Lawrence finishes the 2021 season somewhere in the middle with 26. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Chark haul in nine receiving touchdowns. Again, the Jaguars’ offense should be better than it was last year. In 2020, the unit was 30th in points scored but the season before, it ranked a respectable 21st and 19th in passing touchdowns with 24.
In 2019, Chark had eight receiving touchdowns but the team didn’t have as many weapons on offense as they do ahead of training camp. Paradoxically, he will have more opportunities to score now that Jacksonville has more options in the passing game, including rookie running back Travis Etienne.
Laviska Shenault should also score a couple more touchdowns in 2021 while Marvin Jones will have seven or eight. Lawrence should make everybody around him better but nobody will benefit the most from having stability at the quarterback position than Chark. He won’t get to the ten-touchdown mark but he will still have the best season of his NFL career. Speaking of having a good year…
This Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver will make the Pro Bowl again.
No Jaguars player earned Pro Bowl honors last season, and rightfully so. It’s easy to validate that kind of accolade when a team finishes the season with a 1-15 record. You could argue that rookie running back James Robinson and linebacker Myles Jack were snubbed but the truth is that there were players more deserving of the nod.
Back in 2019, four Jacksonville players were named to the Pro Bowl, and Chark was among them. If the Louisiana native plays the way he did that year, he has a good chance of getting his second Pro Bowl designation. On the other hand, he won’t earn First or Second-Team All-Pro honors. The NFL is full of talented wide receivers and Chark isn’t in the upper echelon.
Last year, wide receivers Davante Adams, Tyreek Hill, and Stefon Diggs were First-Team All-Pro selections while DeAndre Hopkins, Justin Jefferson, Calvin Ridley, and DK Metcalf Cole Beasley made the Second Team. Other than maybe Beasley, all of these wideouts are better than Chark and most of them have a good chance to earn All-Pro honors again in 2021.
Sure, it would be great to see Chark be named an All-Pro wide receiver but getting a Pro Bowl nod isn’t a bad consolation prize. Either way, the wide receiver should have big role in the Jaguars’ turnaround in 2021, and finishing the year with more than 1,000 receiving yards, nine touchdowns, and a Pro Bowl designation qualifies as a successful year.