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 get his body right. We weren’t sure who [Broncos CB Pat] Surtain [II] would match, whether it would be ‘B.T.’ [Brian Thomas Jr.], or Jakob, and a lot of things were kind of set up for Parker to have a day and to be one of the number one targets of today, so that didn’t just happen. We prepared that way all week, [we] wanted to get him involved early, and he had a look in his eye from a very early start that he was going to have a big day.”
Washington must have had the same look in his eye before the Jaguars’ 23-17 Sunday win over the Indianapolis Colts. This time around, he bagged eight catches on 10 targets for 115 yards, with 39 of those yards coming after the catch. This time around, Washington was more responsible for catching stuff on angular in-and out-breaking routes against Lou Anarumo’s varied coverages.
“Yeah, he’s so reliable as a competitor,” Coen said of Washington after this particular series of successes. “You know where he’s going to be. You know what he’s going to do. You know the way he’s going to prepare throughout the week. Trevor trusts him. There’s a trust level there. There’s a continuity there. They’ve been playing together for a number of years now. Third downs, whether it’s running away, zone, he’s just had a – he has a good football feel, and he’s been able to make people miss and have a lot of run after catch, which really helps your offense.”
The Jaguars will have some interesting receiver decisions to make in 2026. Washington will be in the last year of his rookie contract, making the princely sum of $1.145 million. At this rate, the team may work to get him a new deal before he goes and outprices himself. Getting Thomas working as he should in the passing game should be a high priority sooner than later, and there’s a legitimate argument to be made that Hunter’s otherworldly skills would benefit most from a more full-time move to cornerback. Myers, once an unexpected star, will likely be the alpha in the room. But equally out of nowhere, Parker Washington has made it clear that he’s a perfect fit in his new offense, and everybody’s in agreement there.
Not bad for a guy who was barely known outside of Duval and College Station a few weeks ago.
