Cal Football: Marvin Jones Jr. Adds Teacher to His Duties with the Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jacksonville Jaguars, who lost their final 15 games a year ago, were virtually unwatchable in 2020.
This season, they will be hard not to watch.
The Jaguars will unveil top-draft choice Trevor Lawrence, who looked like a pro the first time he took a snap in a game at Clemson.
They are led by coaching legend Urban Meyer, who never won fewer than eight games in his of his 17 college seasons, compiling a record of 187-32 at Bowling Green, Utah, Florida and Ohio State. Now he tries the NFL for the first time.
Sliding into this tantalizing mix of new pieces is former Cal wide receiver Marvin Jones Jr., entering his 10th NFL season.
Marvin Jones Jr. (11) talks with teammate Phillip Dorsett.
Photo by Bob Self, Florida Times Union
Jones, who had a career-best 76 receptions with Detroit last season, signed as a free agent with Jacksonville this offseason rather than remain in the Motor City, where he could have caught passes from fellow Cal alum and new Lions starter Jared Goff.
Jones, 31, needs 77 catches to reach 500 for his career. He has grabbed nine touchdown passes in three of the past four seasons.
There’s no promise he will deliver that level of statistical production with the Jaguars. But it also doesn’t sound like that’s the only reason Jacksonville signed him.
The Jaguars are a young team, especially at wide receiver, where the top returnees are 24-year-old DJ Chark, a 2019 Pro Bowl pick, and second-year man Laviska Shenault Jr., the former Colorado star.
New Jaguars offensive coordinator Darell Bevell, who was briefly the Lions’ interim head coach a year ago, knows Jones and understands what he can bring to the equation.
“I think it’s really important to have that guy,” Bevell told Kassidy Hill of SI.com’s Jaguar Report. “Our receiver room is a young room, just guys that have been in the league for a couple years. To have that veteran to come in — one to kind of show them how he has lasted 10 years.
“That’s not the norm and he has done it at a high-level so how does he take care of his body? What does he do in the offseason? For me it’s like another coach over there in the receiver room because he has been with me for two years and we have coached up a lot of these things.”
Bevell has confidence that Jones can play of the role of teacher to develop the young talent the Jaguars hope to see blossom. Hill wrote that Meyer has challenged Chark to become a stronger, more well-rounded player.
But there’s more to the game than merely spending extra time in the weight room. That’s where Bevell believes Jones can lead the way.
“There new stuff that’s added,” Bevell said, “but he is able to kind of able to be that voice in there and be like ‘Hey, this is what he is looking for and this is what we like to do there.’ It’s invaluable to have a guy like that.”
Jones, who signed a two-year, $14.5 million deal with Jacksonville in March, sees huge potential in Chark and Shenault.
Chark, a 6-4, 198-pounder out of LSU, has caught 140 passes for 1,888 yards and 13 touchdowns in his first three pro seasons.
“The dude’s a playmaker,”Jones said. “He has the size, he has the ability and stuff like that. I came in and I told him, ‘Look, anything that I could do to help you, especially in this offense to get you going faster and get you feeling more comfortable, that’s what I’m going to do. So, just follow me.”
Shenault caught 58 passes for 600 yards, including five TDs, as a rookie last fall.
“I think his confidence level is up there,” Jones said of Shenault. “One of the things I told him, I was like, ‘Look, you have the ability to do some great things, especially in the slot that nobody really (does).’ He’s very unique. He has abilities I don’t think anybody has in the NFL and I think he’s starting to really understand that. You get that from year one going on to year two.”
Cover photo of Marvin Jones Jr. and coach Urban Meyer by Nathan Ray Seebeck, USA Today
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
