Episode 83: The Jacksonville Jaguars select Brian Thomas Jr.

It is a little past midnight as Jay and I returned from the draft party down at Everbank Stadium . Hope everybody had a good time down there . It was a fun atmosphere , the weather was perfect , so I think that was pretty much the most important thing I was a little bit worried about .

But the other thing we were worried about is what would the Jacksonville Jaguars do with their first round pick ? And , jay , we are here to talk about it here , as we always have After the draft happens . We always put out an episode the very next morning , and this year will be no different .

We are sharing a microphone just because we had some technical issues . So we'll be managing the back and forth the best that we can . But , Jay , how are you feeling overall ?

As we'll just jump right into it , we'll cut out all the excess stuff the Jacksonville Jaguars traded back from pick 17 so that they move back with the Minnesota Vikings and end up taking Brian Thomas Jr , wide receiver out of LSU at pick number 23 .

So , jay , you've been kind of looking into him here over the last , I would say , 30 minutes or so since we got back . How are we feeling about the pick ? How are you feeling at the moment and how do you feel now ?

You know , when we traded back , we did a little reaction video for that too , and you know he , he was I think he was one of the names I mentioned as a potential guy to trade back for and AD Mitchell , the cornerbacks that we coveted or we really like they were still on the board too at that time , at least the both of them and Mitchell and , uh , terryon

Arnold . But yeah , um , thomas was one of the guys that we uh mentioned and uh , yeah , I mean I felt one of the guys that we mentioned and , yeah , I mean I felt good about the pick when we initially got it .

I mean , because it , look , man , me and Phil can't sit here and complain and complain and complain about doing what's right about Trevor Lawrence , and when the team does what's right for Trevor Lawrence , we sit here and be like , well , that ain't what I had in mind , like this is exactly what we wanted for our young quarterback .

Now , look , you would probably prefer , if you can , pull a bayonet and go back in time , right , you would probably prefer to keep Calvin Ridley and not go through that situation and use the pig somewhere else . But we're here now . You can't change the past , it is what it is .

And also , I mean , you get a young man who's moldable and more affordable than Calvin Ridley . So it's exciting from that perspective of you know what you can mold him into , what he can blossom into . And also he's exciting from the perspective of which this is something we've mentioned and I hate to call it this field , but cheap labor , right .

When you have to pay a quarterback what we're going to have to pay , trevor Lawrence , you're going to have to start looking in places and saying , like we got to cut salary down there , especially at the receiver position . The salary there is sky high , you know , between Zay Kirk , you know , possibly Calvin Ridley would have been in there too .

So this replaces that salary with a cheaper salary , at least for three years . Right , a lot of salary . So it's good from that perspective as well .

We'll kind of I guess we'll circle back to that really quick , jay , for those of you that did not see our reaction video in the moment traded with Minnesota and they got pick obviously 23 , but also 167 , which is the fifth round pick this year , and then a third and a fourth round pick next year . And I know trading down is never the sexy option .

People want to see the pick happen when it happens , especially after last year after multiple tradebacks . But this was an excellent trade for Jacksonville and a lot of people online were reacting very positively to that as well .

So I think you got great value there with the picks next year , which is supposedly going to be just as deep , or maybe perhaps even deeper the 2025 draft . But what do you think about the trade back , jay ? And they did say in their presser that Brian Thomas Jr would have been the pick at 17 regardless .

Who knows if that's true , but what do you think about the compensation that they received for pick 17 from Minnesota .

And then , um , you know , you get a late round pick for this year as well , and I mean , at the end of the day , it was no harm done from it because you know the option they wanted at 17 was still there and other options they probably wanted were , you know , there as there as well . So no harm done there .

Again , you know there has been discussions about how this draft has a drop off at a certain point .

So maybe , what you know , trent Baalke is thinking , he's of that mindset , of that belief as well , to the point where , like he would have just he just preferred to have the third and the fourth for next year and if that's the case , you know we'll have to revisit it in 2025 .

Right To see if that was a good idea to , you know , jump on or pounce on , but nonetheless , like I said initially , you know I would have preferred to have gotten compensation for this year . But now that I've kind of gotten to think about it and think about their thought process , perhaps I'm down for it . So not bad at all .

You still get your receiver and you know you stacked you some picks up for next year .

And what do you think about the new weapon ? How does he fit , you know , amongst Christian Kirk , amongst Gabe Davis , zay Jones ? What do you think about the ? You know just the player that we are getting and that Trevor , and you know the target that Trevor Lawrence is getting as well .

So you know , productive from that that standpoint and was able to do so , you know , with Malik neighbors playing alongside him . So you know with Malik neighbors playing alongside him .

And you know that's one of the interesting things about it is because you know there were times where I feel like you know , at least in some games that I watch , where you know Malik neighbors would steal the show .

And you know Brian Thomas , you kind of forget he's there and then he'll , you know , make an occasional play here and there and it's like , oh yeah , they got who most would actually save . And Steve Smith is among these people . I remember him saying this on his podcast that he does .

But one thing that you notice about Thomas , you know when he did get his opportunities , is you know a lot of people would say he he's more athletic than neighbors from an athletic standpoint .

You know a lot of people would say he , he's more athletic than neighbors from an athletic standpoint Neighbors was more so the one that kind of stood out from a you know visual perspective , from you know what he was able to do and the production and so on and so forth .

But Thomas is a guy that , as I said in the reaction video , he's a guy that when I looked at the stats on PFF reaction video , he's a guy that when I looked at the stats on pff now , the numbers weren't crazy in terms of how many uh snaps in the slot he took as comparison to what he did out wide .

It was a big discrepancy there and if I'm not mistaken here , phil , you got the numbers pulled up as a matter . So , yeah , 40 in the slot and then 259 , 253 , 359 out wide . So like , the numbers aren't crazy there .

But still you could tell that this is a very versatile young man from the perspective of although the slot number is way smaller than the outside number , a lot of his touchdowns came from the slot . A lot of the damage he did was from the slot . So therefore that's what we mean when we say the versatility .

That's what I meant when Daniel Jeremiah mentioned that he believes that this young man could play from multiple spots is because , when he did play from the slot , you know , as Daniel said , quote unquote , he was a player that provided death by slot phase for these defenses in the SEC and , as we all know , the defenses in the SEC are the best in the country .

So , phil , you know , sooner rather than later your Texas team will get to have an SEC defense .

You know I might take a few years of recruiting but , um , you know , I know you guys didn't play a lot of good defense in the previous conference , but that's something that will improve uh , mark my words on that because of the recruiting process and what have you .

But , yeah , um , brian Thomas , I mean he has the size you would like In terms of , you know , six to what , two hundred like fourteen pounds give or take somewhere in there as well .

So he has the size and , most importantly and we've seen this as a theme right for this Jacksonville Jaguars offense in terms of the additions this offseason the theme has been , if you notice deep threats , Gabe Davis can help you deep , which you know when we watched the Jaguars last year , a lot of people's complaints even casual fans complaints was we're not

vertical enough , and the Jaguars obviously heard it , doug Peterson , being an offensive minded coach , he clearly saw it . Trent Baalke , being a scout , clearly saw it . And they're applying , you know , know , what they saw last year to this year and they , they have gotten Trevor Lawrence or um , added Trevor Lawrence , some vertical threats .

Um , as you all will see , brian Thomas , a lot of his , you know damage was done vertically . Gabe Davis , big time vertical threat . So you know , this team did become more explosive this offseason . Now , if the offensive line can hold up and , you know , give Trevor enough time to , you know , do what he has to do , that's another story for another time .

But this does show that they knew that they lacked the vertical threats in this offense and that also shows that and this is a key one for me because I talked about it they weren't complacent with just adding gabe davis .

You know they didn't want to stop there when they lost calvin ridley , obviously , you know they thought that was significant and that was a concern . Yeah , yeah , and that was a concern with trent balker .

We've seen in the past like they lose a player and then they'll come back and come around and say like , hey , like that loss isn't as big as you think it is and it was no way they were going to convince me that losing Calvin Ridley wasn't a big loss , and this shows that they believe that that was the case .

Want to shout out d rock this tweet he put up a little bit earlier in the night . Btj had 12 catches of 20 or more yards at lsu last season , which is the most by an fbs player since espn stats and information began tracking air yards in 2011 . He also had 10 touchdown catches on go routes or fade routes last season , as you just mentioned , jay .

Death by slot fade that is what we are getting here with Brian Thomas Jr , so really exciting . I think the pick was definitely received pretty well within the stadium . Once you get past the initial , I think , irritation of the tradeback , but , as we have discussed , I think it is a solid move overall .

But yeah , jay , I mean a lot of good players left on the board . Don't want to jump too far ahead , but if they want to have some maneuverability , they have a little bit of extra capital next year to do so . Db obviously still a big need .

We definitely want to see them address that in the second or third round , but with any of those players , jay , as we kind of keep this one a little bit more short and sweet , just to kind of look ahead a little bit .

Any of those guys that you are looking at we got Kool-Aid McKintry still available . Johnny Newton , I believe , is a name that's still out there . Any of those guys that have now fallen out of the first round that you would love to see the Jaguars target on day two ?

So that'll be something worth watching . But you know , newton was a guy that was , you know , pretty disruptive . You know , I personally wish he had a little bit more lower body strength . But everything upstairs from the you know waist up the technical part of it , he has that down . So he would be an interesting pick for him .

As you said , kool-aid McKinstry man like which I think you know , when you look at how the Jags played this , they knew Kool-Aid was more along the lines of a guy that would fall to him in the second round .

But they may have been willing and you know , don't quote me on this , this isn't like information or anything like , I didn't see the draft for it but they , you know , I think that they knew he could be a guy that you know . Hey , we can take him in the first round .

If you know , the board gets a little wacky if needed , and we'll be more than OK with doing it . But we also believe that this young man will be available , more so in the second round . And here we are , he is available in the second round . So I mean , he probably would like to trade up to secure one of these young men .

When it comes to when you look at who's picking in front of us and you know we're picking 17th in the second round , but look , you know , that's what you get additional compensation for sometimes . Like we got that third round pick and that fourth round pick for next year and then we got what was it ? 154 for this year , the additional one that we got , 153 .

I was in one off for this year . So you got that additional firepower . If you want to trade up , it's easier to trade up in the second round than it is the first round , of course . So we'll see if they do that that . I wouldn't be shocked if they did .

I think , if I'm not mistaken , the jags have traded up in the second round and trent balky's tenure . Don't quote me on that y'all . But if they haven't , this would be the perfect time to do so , because look at how , looking at how this board looks . You know you can get you another very good player .

And again , you know , not necessarily me and Phil feeling this way , but you know again , that were just talks and discussions that a lot of people believe that it's a drop off at a certain point in this draft . So that's another reason to trade up in the second round . Get you , you know , a guy that you really , really , really like .

So yeah , man , I can't wait to see what they do in the second round . Man , I couldn't be happier with what they did in the first round , but I do think in the end they'll come away with that combination . We were kind of predicting field wide receiver and cornerback either way that it went .

In our draft we went cornerback first , but if they get the cornerback second in the second round , that's okay , because Kool-Aid McKinstry is more than a good enough cornerback to add into the mix with Tyson Campbell and Ronald Darby and what we already have .

Um , we obviously see them move , seen them move back into the first round multiple times here in the last few years , uh , but you know , we will see what happens . But , jay , anything else you want to mention ? I want to get this episode up and out first thing in the morning for when you guys wake up and get your Friday started .

Anything else you want to mention in regards to , you know , our newest , our newest Jaguar , brian Thomas Jr , or anything else that we're going to keep our eye out on for the rest of the weekend , because we will have an episode up early next week as well as we cover the entire draft , and we will be having a guest on for that too .

That we're very excited for .

Also , one thing we forgot to do , phil , is shout out to our sponsor , seatgeek . You know this is the perfect time to do it because you know the draft episodes get a lot of listens . So shout out to SeatGeek , who is your go-to provider for your ticket and needs , whether it's sports , whether it's concerts , whatever the case may be , they got you covered .

You can feel free to use our promotion code for first-time users or first-time purchasers , which is Touchdown Jaguars . Get yourself $20 off of your first order . And , yeah , let us know that you use that code as well . Man Say you sell some money . Get you some gas with that money , or some hot dogs or something .

But yeah , everything you need as far as our links , all the rest of our episodes you can find in the link tree link of the show notes , as Jay mentioned . You also find the link to the Seeky Gap . Save yourself that , that 20 bucks promo code , touchdown Jaguars whole bunch of events coming up this summer .

But yeah , folks , thanks for joining us for this very brief round , one episode , as we are excited to see Brian Thomas Jr link up with Trevor Lawrence . I can't wait to hear from the man QB1 himself as the Jaguars bring in a new weapon for this offense . But , folks , that is my co-host , james Johnson . I am Phil Smith .

Thanks for tuning in to Touchdown Jaguars and we will see you next week and let's hope that the remainder of the draft is just as exciting as tonight was . Take care .