Marvin Jones indicated he wanted to join a contending team in free agency, but the former Bengals and Lions wideout will instead join a rebuilding project in Jacksonville.
The Jaguars are signing the nine-year veteran wide receiver, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. It’s a two-year, $14.5M deal that includes $9.2M fully guaranteed, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.
We heard back in mid-February that Jones was interested in joining the Jaguars. A coaching hire may have made a difference in bringing the veteran target to north Florida. Jones will follow former Lions assistant Darrell Bevell to Jacksonville. The Jags hired the ex-Detroit interim head coach as their offensive coordinator earlier this year.
This week has not featured an aggressive wide receiver market, and Jones will fall short of the $8M-per-year deal he inked with the Lions in 2016. Jones will join Phillip Dorsett in trekking to Jacksonville, though the former should be expected to start. Jones, Dorsett and other Jaguars are expected to be joined by Trevor Lawrence soon.
In three of Jones’ five seasons with Detroit, he exceeded 900 receiving yards. His best season came in 2017, when the Lions featured him, Golden Tate and then-rookie Kenny Golladay. Even at age 30 last year, Jones reached 978 yards. He totaled nine receiving touchdowns in each of the past two seasons and will add a proven target for the Jaguars, who exited last season without much in the way of those.
Jacksonville has D.J. Chark under contract for one more season, with receiver/occasional backfield cog Laviska Shenault showing flashes last year. The team that entered this week with the NFL’s most cap space may not be done at receiver, but Jones represents a nice addition who will stand to help a rookie quarterback assimilate.
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