Jaguars dodge bullet with Julius Thomas injury

The Jacksonville Jaguars put together an encouraging performance in their first preseason game on Friday night, but everyone was holding their breath when prized free agent acquisition Julius Thomas caught his first and only pass.

Thomas went down awkwardly after being cut down near the knees by Pittsburgh Steelers’ cornerback William Gay. Thomas surprisingly got up without a problem, but he went to sidelines favoring his hand and later went into the tunnel. We later learned that Thomas fractured a finger in his hand, but it wasn’t too serious and he should be ready for week 1 of the regular season.

Looking back, it’s amazing that Thomas isn’t any worse for wear. When the play first happened, I felt my heart sink – I thought Thomas might have had a serious leg injury, something the Jaguars have had terrible luck with already (see: Dante Fowler Jr.).

Check it out for yourself:

Luckily Thomas had the wherewithal to jump into the air, otherwise we might not have seen Thomas stand back up on his own power.

"“I’d rather break a bone in my hand than my leg, so those plays are tough and you definitely want to make sure you get your feet off the ground… You see so many guys in that similar situation have knee injuries. Those take a considerable amount longer than a couple weeks.”– Jaguars tight end Julius Thomas"

Ultimately, this is probably for the best as there is little benefit to having Thomas on the field during the preseason. It would be nice to see Bortles develop some of that chemistry with his new tight end, but they’ve had a decent amount of practice time together. I don’t expect the pair to skip a beat when the regular season starts.

Next: Which Jacksonville Jaguars players are seeing their stock rise?

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