Jaguars: 5 biggest draft busts of the Dave Caldwell era

No. 3 Jaguars biggest bust of the Dave Caldwell era – Marqise Lee, WR

The draft is a crapshoot and even the clubs with the best track record have had their fair share of misses. Having said that, Dave Caldwell’s tenure as the general manager of the Jaguars was full of subpar picks. Back in 2014, he chose quarterback Blake Bortles (more on him later) in the first round and selected wide receivers with back-to-back picks in the second round.

One of those picks was Allen Robinson, who went on to become the team’s top receiver. The other was Marquise Lee, better known as the albino Tiger because of how difficult it was to find him. There’s a whole debate whether the Jags should have let Robinson walk away in free agency after his rookie deal expire but the Jags at least got two pretty good seasons out of him. Meanwhile, Lee didn’t make much of an impact and was even surpassed by undrafted free agent Allen Hurns on the depth chart.

In Lee’s defense, he did have a somewhat solid stretch from 2017 to 2018, hauling in 119 receptions for 1,553 yards with six touchdowns. However, his production dipped in 2019 and he went on to catch a measly three receptions for 18 yards. That was the last year he played a regular-season game in the NFL.

The Jaguars moved on from Lee in 2020 and although he tried to continue his NFL career, he hasn’t had much success. He signed with the New England Patriots that year but he opted out of the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was released in 2021, and joined the San Francisco 49ers but was given his walking papers again just four days later.