LOS ANGELES -- Marqise Lee is pretty easy to figure out. When the USC wide receiver was happy, angry or frustrated, it was visible on his face and obvious in his body language. The only time you won't get a read on Lee is trying to figure out just how hurt he might be.
Lee dealt with shoulder, knee and leg injuries during his final season with the Trojans, forcing him to miss three and a half games. But whenever he was on the field, Lee insisted he was ready to go, even if he never looked like himself until the Las Vegas Bowl with the benefit of a few weeks to rest and rehab.
"It's hard with Marqise because he is never going to tell you like that," wide receivers coach Tee Martin told College Football 24/7 recently when asked how close to 100 percent Lee was as a junior.
"He told me, 'Coach, if I'm out there, I'm 100 percent.' He went deep. He was able to get open still. He did all the things he would normally do," Martin added.
However, Lee managed just 57 receptions for 791 yards and four touchdowns, a fraction of the production he put up in his first two years at USC.
Even with that downturn, Lee checks in at No. 20 on NFL Media analyst Daniel Jeremiah's list of the top 50 prospects in the 2014 NFL Draft. Lee is also projected to come off the board by the 18th pick in the first round in the first set of mock drafts by NFL Media analysts, with Charles Davis slotting him to the Oakland Raiders at No. 5.
Martin agrees with those favorable assessments, pointing to Lee's overall body of work and dynamic skill set.
"I think the sky is the limit for him, and he is going to take off when he gets to whatever team (drafts him)," Martin said.
Follow Dan Greenspan on Twitter @DanGreenspan.
