While the Jacksonville Jaguars were winning games early in the season, wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr. was a non-factor. This was surprising because he had an electrifying rookie campaign. The expectation was that the 2024 first-round pick was going to get better as the year progressed, and that's precisely what he's done. His performance in the loss against the Seattle Seahawks is proof of it.
Thomas had his most productive game of the season in Week 6, hauling in eight receptions for 90 yards with a touchdown. It's also worth noting that he would have had another touchdown if a Travis Hunter offside hadn't wiped out the play. Sure, the Louisiana native also had a baffling drop late in the game that hurt the Jags but has certainly looked much better than he did early in the season.
The Jaguars must be pleased with Brian Thomas Jr.'s improvement
Thomas had 12 catches for 164 yards on 32 targets the first four games. That's most definitely the kind of production you envisioned from a player who hauled in 82 receptions for 1,282 yards with 10 touchdowns in his first NFL season. However, the former LSU Tiger has shown a noticeable improvement the past two weeks, reeling in 12 catches on 16 targets for 170 yards with a touchdown.
Following the loss to the Seahawks, Thomas said that the Jaguars need to stop beating themselves, noting that mistakes would set them back every time they made a play.
"I feel like we just had like every time we would get a good play or get a drive started, we would set ourselves back with a penalty or something," Thomas told the media in the aftermath (3:11 mark). "It's like little stuff; I thought we had a good game plan. Like some of the stuff that we were doing was working, we just got to quit beating ourselves."
Thomas later said in the exchange that the team must execute, poiting out that the coaching staff is putting players in a position to succeed.
"Yeah, you definitely can fix the week, and that's something that we definitely do got to fix and get out. That's the only way we gonna win games. We got to keep fighting, keep going out to practice, practicing hard and clean up all the little stuff, all the pre-play stuff. I mean, coach doing a great job of helping us, trying to help us out, we just got to go out there and execute and stuff that he does help us out with. We just got to go out there and do it to the best of our ability and get the job done," Thomas said.
That's most definitely the right mindset moving forward. The sky isn't falling, but the Jaguars must fix all those issues that have been holding them back this season.
For his part, head coach Liam Coen needs to focus on cleaning up penalties, while players, such as Brian Thomas Jr., need to come through when called upon. If he can consistently play like he did in 2024, they'll be in a position to once again win football games.