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What to Expect from Brian Thomas Jr.?!? · Duval Daily: A Jacksonville Jaguars Podcast

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jacksonville Jaguar's fans, welcome into Duval.
• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Daily, presented by Jinjak.com.
• 0:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm Jordan Aluga.
• 0:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks so much for being here Thursday, May 21st.
• 0:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Today is going to be a wide receiver centric day.
• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to start it off talking about Brian Thomas Jr. Obviously, there's rumors.
• 0:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: reporting if you want to call it that from Jason Lawcom for other people talking about it maybe the jack was being interested in moving Brian Thomas Jr. for AJ Brown when will the Brian Thomas Jr. trade saga end who freaking knows but right now we're talking about Brian Thomas Jr. as a Jacksonville jackwar right as a member of this football team and kind of
• 0:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: What did we actually see from him over the first two years of his career?
• 0:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: What did we see from him down the stretch last year?
• 0:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: And what did the expectations move in forward?
• 0:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: I honestly think it's somewhat difficult to
• 0:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: put forth a confident expectation on what you're going to get.
• 0:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because in 2024, his rookie season, you saw somebody who looked like he was the next big thing.
• 1:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: You saw I receiver, even when Trevor Lawrence was playing, who made so many plays where it just felt like this guy was going to be a superstar.
• 1:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then you get into a new system in 2025 with Liam Cohen, much more complicated system.
• 1:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: You have different things going on, different factors.
• 1:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it just isn't working early on.
• 1:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then you have some injuries pile up a little bit.
• 1:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: You're playing through an injury.
• 1:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Even early on, you're making some plays.
• 1:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like big catch down the field against the chiefs.
• 1:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: help you in that game, big catch against the Texans, help you in that game.
• 1:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: But it's still just, it's not what anyone expected.
• 1:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Brian Thomas Jr expected, the Jaguar's expected, the NFL World expected a fantastic year from BTJ.
• 1:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that wasn't happening.
• 1:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then again, you miss some time with injuries.
• 2:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: After there's some questions about the effort, a lot of people point back to the big hit in the preseason against the
• 2:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: going over the middle as like a big reason why BTJ kind of had that slump at the beginning of the season.
• 2:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then after he comes back from injury, week 13, you have a player who is no longer being featured as a top target, but a player who is still out there consistently, who is getting reps, who is getting targets, who is clearly a
• 2:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: important part of the offense.
• 2:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's just not the passing offense, right?
• 2:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jacobi Myers has entered the fray.
• 2:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Britain's strange is healthy.
• 2:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Parker Washington has emerged.
• 2:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Travis E. T. Yann making a big impact.
• 2:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's received right out of the backfield.
• 2:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: But you get a player who played pretty well.
• 2:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Did some good things.
• 2:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that's just from like a production standpoint.
• 2:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: To me, after he returned
• 3:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: What I loved was he was creating separation down the field.
• 3:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was playing with effort.
• 3:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was creating spacing for others to absolutely feast.
• 3:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the Jaguars were utilizing him in a way that I think accentuated his best skill, which again is winning on the vertical plane.
• 3:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: That is not his only skill.
• 3:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: I do believe he can do more.
• 3:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: For the Jaguars offense moving forward.
• 3:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: But again, it's like,
• 3:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: So he's going to be one of the most intriguing players in my opinion to watch throughout this summer and into training camp, how is it looking?
• 3:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it's not just on BTJ when it comes to the big completions down the field.
• 3:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Trevor and B.T.J.
• 3:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: got to get on a more cohesive that got to get that chemistry down.
• 4:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because that could be a huge
• 4:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: just kind of like aha moment if you're able to re-get that going because it just was kind of not there last year, like big, big shots down the field, it just weren't really there.
• 4:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: The connection wasn't there and it's not like you didn't see that in his rookie year with Trevor Lawrence.
• 4:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know a lot of it's production game with Mac Jones, but there were times where Trevor and BTJ had unbelievable, I mean,
• 4:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: This wasn't like a huge shot down the field, but his first touchdown against the dolphins in 2024 was insane.
• 4:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then you had Trevor Lawrence dotting him down the field, one on one against Christian Gonzalez against the Patriots, like there were moments, right?
• 4:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: It just wasn't as consistent early on, but last year there just wasn't much consistency at all deep down the field between Trevor Lawrence and Brian Thomas Jr., so that's something those two got to get going because they can,
• 4:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: beast if they can get that connection down.
• 4:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: So looking at his numbers after he returned, because, you know, beyond, you know, creating the separation, playing with that for creating spacing for all the other receivers to do well and for Trevor Lawrence to be able to find the other receivers, he was on pace for about 50 catches, just under 50 catches.
• 5:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: This was seven games, but extrapolating his numbers over a 17 game stretch, 48 and a half catches, 748 yards, over 15 yards per catch, which is, that would have been top 10 in the NFL last year.
• 5:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: And five touchdowns, which those numbers are not eye-popping.
• 5:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: But again, he dramatically improved his drop rate during that time period, his effort, and he was creating spacing for everyone.
• 5:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Again, cannot wait to see what he looks like on the practice field.
• 5:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: One thing you can definitely point out, contextually like he didn't look great on the practice field.
• 6:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: There was moments there was flashes.
• 6:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: He didn't look great on the practice field during his rookie year, really until the joint practices where he just went off.
• 6:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then last year,
• 6:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Had a good bit of struggles during practice, you know, leading up to the season as well and I kind of wrote it off as well.
• 6:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: We saw this the year before it really wasn't an issue once the game started, so I think we're all right.
• 6:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: But for whatever reason, really slow start couldn't give the effort required and it just kind of snowballed until he got injured and missed some time and then when he came back he was playing better football.
• 6:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: My best guess is, you gotta think about this Jaguar's offense.
• 6:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: There are so many weapons to Kobe Myers, Parker Washington, Brian Thomas Deuter, Travis Hunter, Britain Strange, right?
• 6:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're gonna be spread in the ball around.
• 6:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I honestly would expect a little bit more production than what we see with these numbers, as I mentioned, which again is like just under 50 catches, just under 750 yards, five touchdowns.
• 7:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: I would guess honestly.
• 7:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: more in the 55 to 60 catch range, more in the 800 to 900 yard range, and 7, 8 touchdowns.
• 7:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's my best guess based on the fact that I don't think that B2J's numbers, at least this year, based on what the Jaguars have, are going to look like they did as a rookie.
• 7:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was getting force fed the ball, he was producing an extremely high rate, it was fun to watch.
• 7:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jaguar is a team we're not fun to watch that year, but it was fun to watch BTJ for sure.
• 7:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, I don't think you're going to get to that level just because of how much the ball is going to be spread around.
• 7:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think the Jaguar's rushing attack is going to be pretty good.
• 8:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Actually, I think it's going to be very good.
• 8:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I think you're going to see more than what you saw towards the end of last year.
• 8:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Certainly more than what you saw the early portion of last year.
• 8:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I still don't think it's going to be like insane numbers, but I think you're going to get a player who looks rejuvenated.
• 8:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: And again, is doing things that help the offense when he doesn't have the ball.
• 8:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: And when he does get targeted, I think it's going to look better than it did early in the season, more like it did late in the season.
• 8:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let me know what you think in the comment section below.
• 8:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you enjoy the content here, please like and subscribe.
• 8:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Y'all have a good one.