JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- It was easy to see, very early in training camp, that Jacksonville Jaguars rookie wide receiver Laviska Shenault was different.

The former Colorado standout was standing next to running back Leonard Fournette on the practice field, and they had an almost identical build. Remove the names and numbers from the jerseys -- and cover Shenault’s dreads -- and you couldn’t tell which one was the between-the-tackles, downhill runner and which one was the flashy pass-catcher.

Shenault is 6-foot-1 and 227 pounds. Fournette, who is now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, is 6-0 and 228 pounds. Shenault is one inch taller and one pound lighter. That might not sound significant, but when NFL coaches who are around huge guys all the time notice that Shenault looks different, it is significant.

“When you get a visual on him I don’t think you realize, until you actually see him up close, how big he is, how strong he is, how powerful he is,” coach Doug Marrone said.

That’s why Marrone’s initial thought was to use Shenault everywhere. Line him up outside, in the slot, at tight end, give him the ball on end-arounds -- even put him in the backfield as a running back and let him carry the ball between the tackles. Use him as a Wildcat QB.

But with the emergence of undrafted rookie James Robinson at running back, the Jaguars have backed off a little from those plans and are using Shenault as a more traditional receiver. It turns out he’s a pretty good receiver for a guy built like a running back: He leads the Jaguars in receptions (23) and receiving yards (270) and is second in targets (28) to go along with nine carries for 53 yards through the Jaguars’ first five games.

That puts Shenault on pace for 74 catches for 864 yards. The receptions would be a franchise rookie record and the yardage would come in second -- by a yard (both marks are held by Justin Blackmon), which makes Darrin Chiaverini’s prediction even more impressive considering he had no idea what those records were.

Chiaverini is the offensive coordinator and receivers coach at Colorado. He recruited Shenault, first while he was special-teams coordinator and outside receivers coach at Texas Tech under Kliff Kingsbury, and then after joining the Buffaloes' staff in 2016. He has high expectations for a player he compared to Julio Jones and Anquan Boldin.

“He should break every Jacksonville record for rookies,” Chiaverini said. “He really should. He is that talented.”

“... What’s crazy about Laviska is like, people don’t realize how big he is until they stand next to him. He’s a thick kid and he’s not overly tall. He’s not like Julio Jones where he’s like 6-4, but the way he’s built, it’s different. He’s kind of like in that Deebo Samuel mode a little bit, too. He’s a little bit bigger than Deebo. He’s bigger than Anquan, but he’s built like Anquan as far as his legs.”

Shenault carried the ball a lot at Colorado (42 times for 280 yards and seven TDs) and Chiaverini would smile when he watched Shenault run over defensive backs. He’s going to choose contact over going out of bounds.

“DBs don’t like that,” said Chiaverini, a former receiver who was a fifth-round choice of the expansion Cleveland Browns in 1999 and played for four NFL seasons. “They don’t want a guy to drop his shoulder that’s 225, 230 pounds. They don’t want that. That’s part of his game and it’s not going to change and he should keep that part of his game because that makes him who he is.”

That leads to this question: Is Shenault a running back playing receiver, or a receiver playing running back?

Figuring out how to define him is on everyone else, Shenault said, because he doesn’t really care.

“I’m good with whatever,” he said. “You give me the opportunity, you give me the chance to go do something, I’m going to go do it. So, me playing receiver, me playing running back, it doesn’t matter. I’m an athlete at the end of the day and I’m here to do whatever.”

Whatever, at this point, is being the Jaguars’ best receiver -- and being even more productive than DJ Chark, who made the Pro Bowl last season.

“I’m an athlete. I’m a playmaker,” Shenault said. “I want it. I want the pressure. I love the pressure.”