Jacksonville Jaguars depth chart battle: Chris Conley vs. Laviska Shenault

Will Laviska Shenault out snap Chris Conley for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2020?

The Jacksonville Jaguars were one of the many teams to take advantage of the tremendous depth at wide receiver in the 2020 NFL Draft when they selected Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver Laviska Shenault in the second round, their third pick of the draft overall.

The Jaguars are no strangers to taking chances on somewhat injury-prone players, or players who are major injury risks coming into the NFL.

They have taken risks on players like linebacker Myles Jack, whose medical checks ahead of the 2016 NFL Draft pushed him out of the top 10 picks and into the second round.

There are others like Cam Robinson and Jawaan Taylor, and even 2020 first-round picks CJ Henderson and K’Lavon Chaisson, both with injury issues coming into this draft.

Shenault is no different as a first-round talent and big-time playmaker whose career at Colorado was not necessarily ‘plagued’ by injuries, but certainly affected by them.

Shenault’s various injuries and procedures throughout his time in Boulder were certainly the main contributing factors to his fall in the 2020 NFL Draft, but his loss in draft status was the Jaguars’ potential gain.

How does he fit into the Jaguars’ 2020 plans? In order to dive deeper into that, we need to look at the Jaguars’ 2019 snap counts at receiver to discover his main competition for playing time.

Jaguars 2019 wide receiver snap counts

• 1. Chris Conley, 866 (79.38 percent)
• 2. DJ Chark, 851 (78 percent)
• 3. Dede Westbrook, 747 (68.47 percent)
• 4. Keelan Cole, 330 (33.91 percent)

Regardless of injuries, the Jacksonville Jaguars liked to spread the ball out to different wide receivers and each of these players played at least one-third of the team’s offensive snaps or better. In fact, three out of the Jaguars’ top four receivers played more than two-thirds of the offensive snaps.

This is a team that’s going to use mostly three-wide sets and Laviska Shenault has the rare type of ability to be on the field in multiple different positions.

At Colorado, he did everything from returns on special teams to wide receiver, slot, running back, wildcat quarterback, and even tight end.

Shenault got a lot of manufactured touches at Colorado not necessarily because he wasn’t capable of running a full route tree or getting open otherwise, but Colorado didn’t have the protection or quarterback play to get him the ball enough by traditional means.

There’s no doubt the Jaguars are going to want to get Shenault’s playmaking ability on the field in 2020, but at the expense of who, exactly?

The likeliest option based on the role Shenault will play is Chris Conley, a fifth-year player in 2019 who enjoyed something of a breakout season last year as a free agent pickup for the Jags.

Conley led the Jaguars’ receiving group in snaps played, though DJ Chark wound up leading the team in targets, yards, and touchdowns, as well as getting a Pro Bowl nod.

Chark’s emergence last season, along with Dede Westbrook’s work in the slot, could mean that Shenault and Conley will be in a battle for reps this offseason.

Conley is obviously a tremendous athlete with speed and leaping ability, and now that he’s coming off of the best season of his pro career, there’s no doubt he’s going to be hungry for even more.

Shenault may have to spend his rookie season as the number four receiver in Jacksonville until he can prove worthy of taking Conley’s spot on the depth chart, but it’s certainly possible he will do that sooner rather than later.

Either way, this will be a fascinating battle to watch and a fun one for Gardner Minshew, whose top four receivers from a season ago are back with Shenault and fellow rookie Collin Johnson now in the mix.