The season was a disaster for the Jaguars – 3-14, and with the bizarreness of the failed Urban Meyer experiment. But there are always small individual victories along the way, and Laquon Treadwell is looking like one of them. He’s looking like he might salvage his once-promising career.
If we turn the clock back, Treadwell was a first-round pick of the Vikings in 2016, taken in about the same spot they selected Justin Jefferson four years later. The expectation (or hope) was that he might be the same kind of receiver as those other two big receivers who followed him at Mississippi (A.J. Brown and DK Metcalf). But that never happened; Treadwell is big (6-2, 215) but doesn’t have much speed, creating issues with separation. He ran a 4.65 at his Pro Day way back when, contributing to him falling into the last 10 picks of the first round.
In each of the last three years, Treadwell has been released by three different teams, spending the first part of each season on the practice squad (for the Vikings, Falcons and Jaguars).
But after 2021, it’s looking like Treadwell might be a little bit more. He’s been working on his game, clearly, and was surprisingly decent in the final month and a half of the season. Once they put him in the starting lineup, he had six straight games with 4-6 catches for 50-plus yards. He capped off his season by catching the opening touchdown in the upset over Indianapolis.
In the final seven weeks of the season, Treadwell caught 31 passes for 405 yards, averaging 13.1 yards per catch. Only 16 wide receivers in that span had more receiving yards. Most of the league’s other 31 franchises didn’t have a 400-yard receiver in those seven weeks. That’s progress.
I’m not saying Treadwell is headed for the Pro Bowl. I don’t think we’re at the point where we need to start calculating where Treadwell fits onto a fantasy draft board, be it dynasty or otherwise. But it’s looking to me like he’s gotten over the hump and shown that he’s got what it takes to play at the NFL level. I believe he’ll be on a 53-man roster for all 18 weeks of next season, and that he’ll be a contender to start somewhere. Most likely he’ll be re-signing with the Jaguars, but we’ll see.
| WIDE RECEIVERS, YARDS (Weeks 12-18) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Tgt | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD |
| Cooper Kupp, LAR | 75 | 60 | 806 | 13.4 | 6 |
| Justin Jefferson, Min. | 78 | 45 | 672 | 14.9 | 4 |
| Tee Higgins, Cin. | 50 | 37 | 645 | 17.4 | 4 |
| JaMarr Chase, Cin. | 49 | 34 | 588 | 17.3 | 5 |
| Amon-Ra St. Brown, Det. | 71 | 55 | 583 | 10.6 | 5 |
| Davante Adams, G.B. | 63 | 51 | 574 | 11.3 | 6 |
| Russell Gage, Atl. | 60 | 45 | 562 | 12.5 | 3 |
| Hunter Renfrow, L.V. | 55 | 47 | 514 | 10.9 | 5 |
| Brandon Aiyuk, S.F. | 42 | 27 | 485 | 18.0 | 2 |
| Darnell Mooney, Chi. | 65 | 40 | 484 | 12.1 | 1 |
| Tyler Lockett, Sea. | 36 | 26 | 458 | 17.6 | 5 |
| Stefon Diggs, Buff. | 72 | 43 | 452 | 10.5 | 4 |
| Diontae Johnson, Pitt. | 74 | 48 | 447 | 9.3 | 4 |
| Mike Williams, LAC | 51 | 30 | 441 | 14.7 | 2 |
| Deebo Samuel, S.F. | 33 | 22 | 411 | 18.7 | 1 |
| DJ Moore, Car. | 61 | 31 | 406 | 13.1 | 0 |
| Laquon Treadwell, Jac. | 44 | 31 | 405 | 13.1 | 1 |
| Jaylen Waddle, Mia. | 47 | 36 | 393 | 10.9 | 3 |
| Brandin Cooks, Hou. | 47 | 31 | 378 | 12.2 | 4 |
| Tyler Boyd, Cin. | 31 | 23 | 370 | 16.1 | 3 |
| Zay Jones, L.V. | 54 | 38 | 369 | 9.7 | 0 |
| CeeDee Lamb, Dall. | 43 | 29 | 362 | 12.5 | 0 |
| Mike Evans, T.B. | 37 | 27 | 356 | 13.2 | 4 |
| Christian Kirk, Ariz. | 42 | 28 | 354 | 12.6 | 1 |
| Marvin Jones, Jac. | 48 | 31 | 346 | 11.2 | 1 |
| Jakobi Meyers, N.E. | 44 | 29 | 344 | 11.9 | 1 |
| Chase Claypool, Pitt. | 44 | 25 | 334 | 13.4 | 1 |
| Michael Pittman Jr., Ind. | 48 | 31 | 330 | 10.7 | 1 |
| DK Metcalf, Sea. | 57 | 29 | 330 | 11.4 | 4 |
| Keenan Allen, LAC | 51 | 32 | 328 | 10.3 | 4 |
Statistics compiled using search tools at Pro-Football-Reference.com
—Ian Allan