Not every player at 49ers rookie minicamp is participating in their first ever NFL practice. One player in uniform when the club took the field Friday for their first day of rookie minicamp was former Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Marqise Lee per Matt Barrows of the Athletic.
Lee, a second-round pick of the Jags (No. 39 overall) out of USC in 2014, was participating on a try-out basis.
It wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see Lee carve out a spot on the 90-man roster to compete in a relatively unproven receiving corps. He inked a four-year, $38 million extension with Jacksonville after the 2017 season. He’d finally broken out in his third season in 2016 and backed it up with another strong campaign the following year. Between those two seasons Lee posted 119 receptions for 1,553 yards and six touchdowns.
A knee injury during the 2018 preseason wound up requiring season-ending surgery. He came back for 2019, but played just six games before another knee injury knocked him out for the year. Lee was released by the Jags and signed with the Patriots before opting out of the 2020 season.
Now Lee finds himself in Santa Clara vying for a chance to earn his way back onto an NFL roster. The 49ers still haven’t nailed down a No. 3 wide receiver, and the only rookie they added was undrafted free agent Austin Watkins Jr. There are a slew of names who could conceivably earn the No. 3 WR job, but there’s no clear-cut favorite heading into the offseason.
In 59 games (30 starts) with the Jaguars, Lee posted 174 receptions for 2,184 yards and eight touchdowns.
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