With season-ending injuries to two of Jacksonville’s key receivers in D.J. Chark Jr. and Jamal Agnew, the team has asked a lot of Laquon Treadwell. He began the year on the practice squad but was called up to the active roster twice for single-game stints before returning to the practice squad. On Nov. 6, he got another callup, and he’s been on the active roster ever since, starting three of the last five games.
Treadwell has answered that call, leading the team in receiving in the last two games. This week against the Tennessee Titans, he’ll see a familiar face on the opposite sideline: receiver Julio Jones, who was teammates with Treadwell last year in Atlanta.
When asked what he learned from his time working with Jones, Treadwell said that he learned to check his own pride.
“I’ll take this out of Julio’s book, when I first met him the first couple practices, he said, ‘The reason why I’m able to play ten years at a high level is because I don’t have an ego,'” Treadwell recounted. “That was my chance to lose my ego in a sense whereas I knew I had a great camp, and my ego says, ‘don’t sign back.’ I’ve made that mistake in my career before where I didn’t sign back to a team or practice squad. Me trusting that without having this ego, things will work out for the better. If I just trust in the coaches and what they see, how this is going, everything will work out for the better.
“Again, there’s Julio being a great guy, helping me out. I didn’t have my ego and I just took it for what it was and I took it as an opportunity to continue to get better on my craft because I love what (Wide Receivers Coach) Sanjay (Lal) was teaching, I love what (Offensive Coordinator) Coach (Darrell) Bev(ell was teaching) and I love what (Head Coach) Coach (Urban) Meyer was teaching in that instance, at that moment. I trusted the plan.”
A former first-round pick out of Ole Miss for the Minnesota Vikings, Treadwell never really caught on with the team, and his best season came in his third year in 2018 when he had 302 yards and a touchdown on 35 catches. He already has 144 yards on 10 catches this season, and though he hasn’t found the end zone yet, he’s playing some of the best football of his career right now.
He has the potential to be more than a stopgap, and for a Jaguars team that doesn’t have much receiver depth even with Agnew and Chark healthy, he could be playing himself into a roster spot and role on the team next season.