Marquise Brown had a solid rookie season with 600 yards and 7 TDs. However, in 2020 he has been underwhelming and underachieving. Even to the point where Brown called out his quarterback for not targeting him enough. Many people place the blame on former MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson. This criticism of Jackson is not completely out of place, but Jackson can not take the blame for all of Brown’s shortcomings. So, what is going on? It’s simple, Marquise Brown is overrated.
Brown and many of his supporters claim that his QB does not and can not get the ball to him enough. However, Brown is 3rd in team air yards percentage (TAY%) in the NFL, at 41.52% of his team’s air yards. Of the top ten players in TAY%, only two have less than 900 yards on the season. Marquise Brown and Adam Thielen. However, Adam Thielen has a teammate in the top ten for TAY% besides him, in Justin Jefferson, so his lack of yards is understandable.
So, what separates Brown from the other members of the top ten. His catch percentage. Of the members of the top ten, only two members have a catch percentage below 60%. Marquise Brown and D.J. Moore. With Brown having the lower of the two with a catch percentage of only 53.73%. This is the 9th worst catch percentage in the NFL.
The counter-argument that many supporters will give is that Jackson is throwing bad passes. My counter-argument, Marquise Brown is not getting open enough. Despite running a 4.33 40-yard dash at the combine, Brown does not get as open as he should. Brown only averages 3.1 yards of separation per play, making a tight window for his quarterback to throw into. For comparison, he has the same average as both Juju Smith-Schuster and Jarvis Landry. However, both players are having down years. Ironically both Smith-Schuster and Landry have more yards than Brown, despite having barely half of the TAY%.
It is plain and simple. Yes, Lamar Jackson is not the best QB in the world and is a ticking time bomb, but he can not take the entirety of the blame. Marquise Brown is overrated, and simply not that good.
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