Latest / The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network / Press Pass | Brian Thomas Jr. Introductory Press Conference

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Press Pass | Brian Thomas Jr. Introductory Press Conference · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, Brian, congratulations Gene Furnette with the Florida Times Union.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: When you look at this team's receiver room, the experience
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: that you have, you have already there with with Gabe Davis,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Christian Kirk, including tight end Evan Ingram, and you look
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: that Trevor has already been in the league for three years.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: What are your expectations as a rookie given all the
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: mentorship that you have both in the receiver room and
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: in the starting quarterback.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: My expect my expectations are to just come in earn
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: the trust of the quarterback and the trust of my
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: teammates coaching staff to know, like, when opportunity to present
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: this Stuff'm gonna go out there and give my give
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: my all, go out there and make the make the play.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: I would say that was my expectations coming in.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: As a follow up, could you just talk a little
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: bit about your level of excitement. Obviously, when the drafts happen,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: you you have no idea where you're going, and all
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: of a sudden you land on on this particular team,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: and you are obviously familiar with coach Peterson a little bit, right,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: and what the Jaguars have done and what they have.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: What was your level of excitement that Jacksonville was your destination.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: I was super excited to be on my way to
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Jacksonville and just being able to share that moment when
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: my parents have my family there. It was a great
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: experience for me. It was a great, great time just
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: to have them there with me and Jacksonville or somewhere
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: I felt like I could fit in at So I
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: was very excited.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Mike Draco with ESPN, pretty good legacy of LSU receivers
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: in the NFL, especially recently, kind of feel like you
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: kind of have to live up to that.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: I'm just trying to be myself. I don't feel like
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: I have to live up to know expectations. Just gonna
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: come out there, work hard, do what I can do
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: and to the best of my ability.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: So yes, sir, I think people are wondering what number
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: were you wear.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Or do you want to wear?
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: You know a number I want to wear, but as
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: of right now, I'm being number eighty.
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: Hey, Brian Jamal Saints here with news for jackson What
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: was the first interaction you had with the Jaguars and
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: when did you maybe get a feel that Doug Peterson
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: and Trent were interested in bringing you here to Jacksonville.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: My first interaction was was this a combine? I had
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: a formal meeting that went well to me. Then I
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: came on a top thirty visit and I left her
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: pretty confident knowing that I had I had did the
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: best that I can do. So I would say that yep.
• 2:36
  Speaker 5: Hey, Brian Chris Porter from First Coast News, welcome to Duvall.
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: Last night I heard you talking about you being a
• 2:42
  Speaker 5: man of faith. You had an opportunity today to walk
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: through the facility see them a little bit. Can you
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: just walk me through what it was like today actually
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: being here in Jacksonville and understanding this is my new home.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great feeling just being able to experience
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: this with my pain, my family. It's a great feeling
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: just to know that I'll be here in Jacksonville, not
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: too long, just this is where I'll be staying. Just
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: amazing feelings.
• 3:10
  Speaker 5: Also, I know that you're a two sports star. You
• 3:12
  Speaker 5: could ball, You were one of one of Louisiana's top
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: basketball players and really didn't take football seriously until midway
• 3:19
  Speaker 5: through your high school career. When did you know football
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: is your sport?
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Football has been my sport since I was six years old.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: I just I took a year off my ninth grade
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: year just to get stronger. I came in high school,
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: I wasn't I was a little leaner. So I was
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: just took a year off to get a little stronger.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: But football has always been my main sport.
• 3:40
  Speaker 6: Yes, sir, Hey, Brian Demitris Harvey with the Florida Times Union,
• 3:46
  Speaker 6: could you just talk about your royal ship with your
• 3:50
  Speaker 6: dad and sort of growing up? You know, I know
• 3:52
  Speaker 6: he was focused a lot on basketball, but just in
• 3:55
  Speaker 6: terms of his athletics and how it sort of, you know,
• 3:58
  Speaker 6: dropped down to you and then now your you're sort
• 4:00
  Speaker 6: of moving up into the NFL.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: Uh, Well, my dad, I got a great relationship. I
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: wouldn't wouldn't say he focused more on basketball than anything.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: He Uh, he really left it up to me whatever
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: I wanted to do. Uh he was support me. Uh
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: support me one hundred percent. So I would I mean
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: he was he was whatever whatever I wanted to do.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: He will be there for me. Uh He's gonna continue
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: to do that for me.
• 4:24
  Speaker 7: Hi Brani Mark along with ap Uh. Can you just
• 4:26
  Speaker 7: take it through last night after we spoke to you,
• 4:29
  Speaker 7: what was the night like for you? A little bit
• 4:31
  Speaker 7: of wharl winner did it calm down at some point?
• 4:33
  Speaker 7: And then what was it like flying in today on
• 4:36
  Speaker 7: the on the private jet? And you know how cool
• 4:38
  Speaker 7: is that of an experience?
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Uh? Night when night was pretty long, had a lot
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: of interviews and stuff. But once I got back to
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: the hotel and got back to the room and chilled
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: out a little bit, I was able to go go
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: to go to sleep, get a couple of hours of sleep.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Came in this morning on the private jet. That was
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: my first time experiencing being on a private jet. Uh,
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: it was amazing.
• 4:57
  Speaker 7: Uh So yeah, is that the closest thing to tell
• 5:01
  Speaker 7: you had with you?
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Is there?
• 5:06
  Speaker 8: Jp Shadick with Jaguars Radio for Brian and coach. So
• 5:10
  Speaker 8: there's a lot of talk around here about football IQ
• 5:12
  Speaker 8: and the importance of being a smart player. How in
• 5:15
  Speaker 8: the discussions of the Jaguars, Brian, how much did that
• 5:18
  Speaker 8: come up? And what did you have to show to them?
• 5:20
  Speaker 8: And then coach what did he what stood out about
• 5:23
  Speaker 8: that process? Brian?
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: Go ahead, Uh, it came up just like well, taking
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: the little tests or whatever how they test you try
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: to see how you remember things how you learn things.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: So I would say it came up and doing us.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: I would say my football IQ is one of the
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: biggest things that helped me out when I'm out there
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: playing coach.
• 5:42
  Speaker 9: Yeah, it's the things we saw, you know, on tape
• 5:44
  Speaker 9: and when you talk to coaches and people close to Brian,
• 5:48
  Speaker 9: you know, the the level of comfort there and understanding
• 5:50
  Speaker 9: his offense, understanding you know, his role in that offense,
• 5:55
  Speaker 9: being able to run just about every route you know
• 5:57
  Speaker 9: in the rout tree. And you know, I said last night,
• 6:00
  Speaker 9: there's gonna be some different routes that we're gonna ask
• 6:02
  Speaker 9: him to do and utilize his skill set that way,
• 6:04
  Speaker 9: and and it's gonna take some time. It's gonna take
• 6:06
  Speaker 9: some new learning obviously with a new system, but very confident.
• 6:11
  Speaker 9: You know, we've got, uh, you know, a rookie rookie
• 6:14
  Speaker 9: mini camp coming up and then the rest of the
• 6:15
  Speaker 9: off season program, so you know, we're gonna do everything
• 6:18
  Speaker 9: we can to get him caught up to speed as
• 6:20
  Speaker 9: as fast as we can and get him plugged in.
• 6:24
  Speaker 10: Uh.
• 6:25
  Speaker 6: Yeah, Doug, can you talk about what Brian's skills will
• 6:28
  Speaker 6: do in terms of creating room ideally underneath and things
• 6:31
  Speaker 6: like that and the pressure that his skills are gonna
• 6:33
  Speaker 6: put on the opponent.
• 6:34
  Speaker 9: Yeah, I think the number one thing you see is
• 6:36
  Speaker 9: that the speed right on film, and you see the
• 6:39
  Speaker 9: ability to get behind secondary and and the and the
• 6:42
  Speaker 9: second and third level defenders. And that's that's big obviously
• 6:45
  Speaker 9: in our league. And then you know, again I mentioned
• 6:47
  Speaker 9: last night too, there's gonna be some different coverages that
• 6:50
  Speaker 9: that that he's gonna see, you know here at the
• 6:51
  Speaker 9: NFL level, and and a lot of teams try to
• 6:54
  Speaker 9: keep that, you know, at Bay they try not to
• 6:58
  Speaker 9: get receivers behind you and and you know, but it's
• 7:01
  Speaker 9: our job as coaches to make sure that we create
• 7:03
  Speaker 9: opportunities to do that and utilize that that speed and
• 7:06
  Speaker 9: so what what that does then opens up the second
• 7:08
  Speaker 9: level area. That's where you know, those you know, twelve
• 7:13
  Speaker 9: fifteen to twenty twenty five yard ranges are really important.
• 7:18
  Speaker 9: And that's that's where you can spend a lot of
• 7:20
  Speaker 9: time and make a lot of uh, make a lot
• 7:22
  Speaker 9: of catches in those areas. And with what we saw
• 7:24
  Speaker 9: on tape, you know, with Brian and being able to
• 7:28
  Speaker 9: you know, separate at the top of the route and
• 7:30
  Speaker 9: and you know, use that athleticism and and use his
• 7:33
  Speaker 9: strength and his size, you know, to to create some
• 7:37
  Speaker 9: some openness there in that second second level.
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Brian, congratulations, I'm all cunder pomp brand with News for Jackson.
• 7:46
  Speaker 9: Has it sink in yet that you were a first
• 7:49
  Speaker 9: round draft pick now an NFL athlete?
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: Uh?
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was getting there as as a time go by,
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: sinking in more and more.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: Breton Martineau with Action Sports Shacks Trent, how much of
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: this was putting together kind of a piece of the
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: puzzle and with Gabe Davis's acquisition and now Brian, the
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: big play capability of this offense, you know, coming off
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: last year, was that something you guys targeted that you
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: needed to do better?
• 8:18
  Speaker 10: Yeah, I think yes to all that. I mean, it
• 8:21
  Speaker 10: was certainly something that we targeted within the system. You know, again,
• 8:26
  Speaker 10: as you talk to the coach, we're looking for ideal fits,
• 8:29
  Speaker 10: and he's an ideal fit, you know, for what the
• 8:31
  Speaker 10: coaching staff is looking for, for what we feel we
• 8:34
  Speaker 10: need to expand offensively. So all of it, I mean
• 8:39
  Speaker 10: in a culture fit like we talk about, you know,
• 8:41
  Speaker 10: bringing in the type of guys that fit into this
• 8:43
  Speaker 10: locker room, fit into this community, and you know he
• 8:47
  Speaker 10: checked all the boxes that.
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: Way, One more follow if you don't mind just looking
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: at tonight. What's the next few hours like for you guys?
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: You have capital? Are you going to be sliding around?
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: Do you want to slide around? Or anticipates sty.
• 9:00
  Speaker 10: But well, again, I mean we've already reached out. There's
• 9:03
  Speaker 10: there's a chance we do some things to try to
• 9:06
  Speaker 10: move up. Uh, there's no guarantees that that's going to happen.
• 9:10
  Speaker 10: We feel good at the pick we're at that we're
• 9:12
  Speaker 10: going to get a good football player. So if the
• 9:14
  Speaker 10: opportunity arises and we can move up, we'll do so.
• 9:18
  Speaker 10: If the if the we stand pat we'll do that,
• 9:21
  Speaker 10: and there's a chance we move back. You know, everything's
• 9:24
  Speaker 10: on the table right now. We feel the board is
• 9:26
  Speaker 10: in good shape. We like a lot of the options
• 9:29
  Speaker 10: that we have in front of us, and we'll just
• 9:31
  Speaker 10: see how the early round goes.
• 9:34
  Speaker 7: Trent, you've experienced a lot of drafts. Last night was
• 9:38
  Speaker 7: unique and the first fourteen offensive guys, what did you
• 9:41
  Speaker 7: make of that? And do you and Doug feel like
• 9:43
  Speaker 7: that's maybe where we're headed as a league with you know,
• 9:48
  Speaker 7: everything being so offensive?
• 9:52
  Speaker 10: That question, No, I think it's you know, every every
• 9:58
  Speaker 10: draft takes on its own identity, you know, and this
• 10:00
  Speaker 10: one obviously was slanted toward the offensive side. I think
• 10:04
  Speaker 10: as you move further along here in the second round,
• 10:07
  Speaker 10: you're probably gonna see a lot of defensive guys start
• 10:09
  Speaker 10: to come off the board. You know, it's a need
• 10:13
  Speaker 10: based league right now, not that it always hasn't been.
• 10:17
  Speaker 10: I think there's value in this second round. There's gonna
• 10:20
  Speaker 10: be a lot of guys that come out of this
• 10:22
  Speaker 10: second round and end up starting in the National Football League.
• 10:25
  Speaker 10: So I wouldn't discount this day. It's an important day
• 10:28
  Speaker 10: for us, important day for a lot of teams around
• 10:30
  Speaker 10: the league.
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: Hey, Trent, Doug, this is for either of you. How
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: much does we were talking about Brian being a basketball player.
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: How much does a guy be in a two sport
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: athlete matter in the evaluation process. I think this is
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: the third year in a row that your first round
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: pick has also played basketball in high school. How much
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: does that account as you kind of try and figure
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: out who these guys are in the athletic profile, you know,
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: I like.
• 10:54
  Speaker 9: Guys that they play multiple sports, you know, growing up.
• 10:57
  Speaker 9: I just think it makes the more of a well
• 10:58
  Speaker 9: rounded athlete, you know, and in different skill sets, right,
• 11:02
  Speaker 9: But at the same time, I think it benefits the
• 11:04
  Speaker 9: player and and it just gives them, you know, that
• 11:08
  Speaker 9: athleticism you're looking for. So I'm all for guys that
• 11:11
  Speaker 9: that you know, play multiple sports, whether it's you know,
• 11:14
  Speaker 9: big guys that wrestle or things of that nature. I mean,
• 11:17
  Speaker 9: you know, he's not a wrestler, but but but a
• 11:21
  Speaker 9: dual spot guy that you know, or a track guy
• 11:23
  Speaker 9: you know. I mean, it's just a different skill set
• 11:25
  Speaker 9: that it turns them into really good athletes.
• 11:29
  Speaker 7: This is for Trent.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Trent, you said last week that if the need excuse me,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: if the talent level was pretty close, that you would
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: maybe favor a little bit more need over in that situation.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: Obviously you had great need at cornerback, great need at receiver.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: What was kind of the was the tipping point for
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: taking Brian? Was it the talent separation or was it
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: in any way need because it seems like the need
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: was pretty much the same, So was it.
• 12:00
  Speaker 10: Lily the combination of everything? You know, And again, when
• 12:03
  Speaker 10: you look at Brian and you know where he's been,
• 12:07
  Speaker 10: the type of young man he is, you know, the
• 12:10
  Speaker 10: ability to check all the boxes as far as what
• 12:12
  Speaker 10: we're looking for in players. You know, there were a
• 12:16
  Speaker 10: lot of good football players on the board. He happens
• 12:19
  Speaker 10: to be one of them. You know, not to discredit
• 12:23
  Speaker 10: anybody else, but at seventeen, like we said last night,
• 12:26
  Speaker 10: you know, Brian would have been the pick, and he
• 12:28
  Speaker 10: ended up being the pick at twenty three. So we're
• 12:31
  Speaker 10: just fortunate, fortunate to have him and looking forward to
• 12:34
  Speaker 10: getting him on the grass.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: How nervous were you as the picks are going by,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: hoping that.
• 12:41
  Speaker 10: Brian would getting nervous, I had to settle coach down.
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: Now.
• 12:46
  Speaker 10: You know, there's always some angst right when you trade
• 12:49
  Speaker 10: back and you you know you're looking at the board.
• 12:51
  Speaker 10: We just felt really good about the way the board looked,
• 12:54
  Speaker 10: Like I said last night, the teams that were in
• 12:56
  Speaker 10: between seventeen and twenty three and their needs. You know,
• 13:01
  Speaker 10: you can't control someone else trading in between you, but
• 13:04
  Speaker 10: you just do the best you can to analyze the
• 13:06
  Speaker 10: situation and you hope for the best once you make
• 13:09
  Speaker 10: the trade.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you.
• 13:12
  Speaker 6: All right, we're gonna have it. You guys have the
• 13:14
  Speaker 6: front right here.
• 13:14
  Speaker 8: You skills