Big Cat Country
Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation’s Doug Farrar writes about the game’s Secret Superstars — those players whose performances might slip under the radar for whatever reasons. In this installment, we focus on Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Parker Washington, who has stepped into Liam Coen’s passing game at the perfect time after nearly three years of anonymity. Now, everyone involved knows exactly who he is.
The Jacksonville Jaguars are 12-4, they’re currently the AFC’s three-seed, and quarterback Trevor Lawrence has never looked better under first-year head coach Liam Coen. This has been especially true over the last few games — since Week 13, Lawrence has completed 99 of 162 passes for 1,345 yards, 12 touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 109.7, which ranks third over that time behind only Brock Purdy of the San Francisco 49ers and Drake Maye of the New England Patriots.
What’s interesting about the Jags’ new and pronounced passing game is that the two guys who were expected to lead it as targets have been missing in action in different ways. Travis Hunter was just starting to get the hang of the Coen offense before he was lost for the rest of the season to a knee injury in late October. And Brian Thomas Jr., one of the most productive rookie receivers in 2024, hasn’t come close to his inaugural numbers in 2025.
The November 4 trade for Jakobi Myers has been a blessing, and the team pounced all over that with a three-year, $60 million contract extension in mid-December. Myers has been the team’s leading receiver since Week 10 — 37 catches on 53 targets for 439 yards and three touchdowns — but the guy who’s closing in on Myers is one Parker Washington, Jacksonville’s sixth-round pick out of Penn State in the 2023 draft. Washington was a blip on the radar at most in his first two NFL seasons, but the connection with Lawrence in Coen’s offense is now clear.
It’s been especially clear over the last two games, and what Washington did to the Denver Broncos’ top-ranked defense in Jacksonville’s 34-20 Week 16 win. Washington caught six passes on 10 targets for 145 yards and a touchdown. 90 of those yards came after the catch, and 77 came after first contact.
These are important metrics in any Liam Coen offense, because the passing game is set up for such things. The 2024 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with Coen as their offensive coordinator, ranked fourth in the NFL with 2,552 yards after the catch, and they ranked first with 1,024 yards after contact. The 2025 Jaguars have been a bit more vertical, with 1,546 yards after the catch and 692 after contact, but you can see why Washington has become a Coen favorite.
“He’s so explosive, and he’s so strong.” Coen said of Washington after the Broncos game. “His lower half is very explosive, he works extremely hard in the offseason to prepare, he works extremely hard during the season to prepare, to...
