Jaguars WR Marqise Lee focused on staying healthy this offseason
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- The Jacksonville Jaguars have something rarer than an albino tiger: a healthy Marqise Lee.
The receiver made it through the first week of organized team activities without any issues, the first time the former second-round draft pick has done that in his three-year career.
Ankles, hamstrings, knees, they're all good.
"Yeah, I'm great," Lee said Thursday. "My body's right, and that's all I care about."
He hopes to redefine his role in the offense, too. It's something that could be a byproduct of staying on the field.
Lee missed most of OTAs as a rookie because of a right ankle injury and sat out the entire 2015 offseason as well as training camp because of a left knee injury. He practiced so little last summer that offensive coordinator Greg Olson said Lee was "like the albino tiger at the zoo."
"If you get there and you're lucky enough to get him to come out of the cave and see him, it's a good day," Olson added.
Lee embraced the "albino tiger" nickname, even talking to his representatives about marketing the moniker.
Nonetheless, he's trying to make it part of his past and not a pattern.
Lee's career has been more about time missed than plays made. He was inactive for three games in 2014 after injuring his right hamstring in practice and then spent another six weeks getting back to full speed. He was back on the sideline last offseason with a knee injury. He got healthy for the start of training camp, but was on the field just three days before ending up on the shelf again.
So having him full go these days is a welcomed sight for the Jaguars.
"Yeah, it is," coach Gus Bradley said. "Just the way he's working, too. It's just what we had asked him to do. ... You see him doing more things to take care of his body."
Lee has 52 receptions for 613 yards and two touchdowns in two seasons, hardly what Jacksonville expected when they selected him with the 39th overall pick in the 2014 draft. Fellow second-rounder Allen Robinson (chosen 61st overall in 2014) and undrafted free agent Allen Hurns have been considerably more productive. No coincidence, they've also been healthier.
But Lee believes it's his time to shine. He certainly has the ability to make Jacksonville's receiving corps, which includes Robinson, Hurns, second-year receiver Rashad Greene and versatile tight end Julius Thomas, among the deepest in the league. Of course, he has to first stay healthy. For now, he's at least on the right track.
"I'm A-1. It feels great," Lee said. "My main focus was getting through this offseason healthy, and I feel great being out here. I feel like I did a good thing as far as getting healthy and that's all I'm focused on. I'm not worried about nothing else but keeping my body right and going from there.
"That's all that's going through my head. When coach Gus asked me what's my mindset, that's all I worry about is staying healthy. Thus far, it's working as far as my plan, so I'm sticking to it.
