Minnesota Vikings: Would Marqise Lee be a good fit?

With the Jacksonville Jaguars releasing wide receiver Marqise Lee leading up to the 2020 season, would the wideout be a good fit with the Minnesota Vikings?

There is officially a new wide receiver on the open market that the Minnesota Vikings could end up having their eye on.

With the offseason rolling heading into the 2020 NFL season and the NFL Draft taking place this week, there have been multiple surprising moves made by teams throughout the league while they address the future of their franchises.

On Monday, another somewhat surprising move took place when the Jacksonville Jaguars released wide receiver Marqise Lee a few days before the annual draft is set to take place on April 23-25.

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport took to Twitter to break the news surrounding Lee’s release on Monday, adding the now-former Jaguars wideout is “fully healthy and completely cleared medically” as he now searches for a new team.

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With Jacksonville later making the announcement official that it has moved on from Lee, there are multiple teams in the NFL that could kick around the idea of adding the 28-year-old wide receiver to their offenses before the draft and the season kicks off.

One team that is likely going to address the wideout spot in the draft and could reconsider that by adding Lee on a free-agent deal is the Vikings. Minnesota looking to bolster their pass-catching unit following the trade of Stefon Diggs and a few other minor contributors at wide receiver, and many think the purple and gold will draft a wide receiver early on in the draft with one of their 12 selections.

The Vikings, however, could look at Lee to add to the mix on offense and ultimately hold off drafting a wideout until potentially later on in the draft.

When healthy, Lee has the ability to be a solid wide receiver. The problem, though, is Lee hasn’t been able to remain healthy for a full season with the exception of the 2016 campaign.

Lee wrapped up his fifth season in the NFL and with Jacksonville in 2019 after he was drafted out of USC by the Jaguars in the second round of the 2014 Draft. Last season, the wide receiver appeared in only six games while dealing with injuries, tallying just three catches for 18 yards.

When he is healthy, Lee has the ability to put up numbers in any offense. In his career-best season in 2016, Lee caught a total of 63 passes for 851 yards and three touchdowns. He can also run the ball if needed, finishing that year with six carries for 35 yards on the ground.

Lee could be a nice piece to insert alongside Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins, wide receiver Adam Thielen and tight ends Kyle Rudolph and Irv Smith Jr. on Minnesota’s offense. It would ultimately give the Vikings another passing target, a spot that is filled with one less player following the Diggs trade.

Lee, Cousins, Thielen, Rudolph, Smith and company and their ability to hurt defenses in the passing game would also open up the ground game nicely for Minnesota running back Dalvin Cook.

With Lee now on the market and coming off of a season where he wasn’t very healthy, Minnesota could try to go out and sign the wide receiver for a fairly cheap price and could take a flier on the potential of him having a breakout year in 2020.

If the Vikings were to do that and entertain the thought of Lee, maybe that could allow them to focus their earlier draft picks on other areas of need while continuing to address the wide receiver position in the later rounds.