PFF ranks Marqise Lee league’s best receiver on crossing routes

Jaguars wide receiver Marqise Lee has been often maligned among Jags fans, especially on Twitter, for his perceived lack of consistency. According to Pro Football Focus, however, when it comes to at least one of the many routes in the playbook nobody does it better than number eleven.

The analytics website ranked Lee as their number one receiver when it came to efficiency on crossing routes in 2017. According to the site’s analyst, Mark Chichester, Lee was so far ahead of the pack, it wasn’t a very close race.

1. Marqise Lee, Jacksonville Jaguars – 128.6 WR Rating

The fourth-year wide receiver became Jaguars QB Blake Bortles favorite target last season and saw 91 targets throughout the campaign – 18 more than the next closest receiver. Thirty of those passes came via the crossing route, where he amassed 24 catches for 286 yards and two touchdowns, all good for a league-leading WR Rating of 128.6. Lee also tallied 15 first down conversions from his crossing routes, which is was second to only Julio Jones last year and his 21 positively-graded targets not only paced the league, but were the second-most ever recorded by a player on crossing routes.

Lee received a new contract from the Jaguars in March, to the surprise of many fans. This appears to be on the surface, at least a part of why the team felt that extension was deserved.