Marqise Lee needs good health to “get back to myself”

[Jaxson De Ville]

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Marqise Lee believes he needs only one thing to happen to have a big season: Stay healthy.

He did that in 2017, catching 56 passes for 702 yards and three touchdowns. It earned him a four-year, $38 million extension with the Jaguars.

Lee, though, has played only 111 total snaps in six games and made only three catches for 18 yards since. Knee and shoulder injuries kept him sidelined.

The Jaguars cut Lee, and the Patriots signed him to a one-year, $1.05 million deal that gives him a chance to revive his career.

“For me, my biggest thing was I just knew the last couple of years I didn’t have the opportunity to do the things I needed to do as a player,” Lee told the team’s beat reporters Wednesday, via Mark Daniels of the Providence Journal. “I felt like me choosing New England to go there this season in a sense to try and get back to myself. I feel like this place is the perfect place to get back and try to get back to yourself. . . . Very strict, basically all about football and handling your business. I feel like I was a little bit off on that point these last two injuries I had. I just want to get back on track and get everything on point. I felt like New England was the right place for me.”

The Patriots didn’t make many other moves at the position, losing Phillip Dorsett and signing Damiere Byrd. So Lee will have an opportunity to make plays if he can stay healthy.