Positives to take away from the Jaguars’ rough start to the 2024 season which has finally resulted into…
It’s been far from a perfect start to the regular season for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Following an 18-13 loss to the Cleveland Browns, Trevor Lawrence had a blunt assessment of the team, “We suck.” He may have a point with the way the Jags have performed the past two weeks.
But even though there’s a big goose egg in the win column, it’s not all doom and gloom in Duval County. In fact, here are three reasons to be optimistic about Jacksonville following its rough start to the 2024 campaign.
Most of Jacksonville’s receivers have been underwhelming after two games, but not Brian Thomas. Their first-round selection has come as advertised, making big plays through the air, and adding verticality to this team. On top of that, he’s already scored his first NFL touchdown ever.
So far, Thomas has only dropped two of his targets. His 141 receiving yards not only lead Jacksonville but also put him in the top 20 among receivers in the NFL, ahead of Amon-Ra St. Brown, A.J. Brown, George Kittle, and former Jaguar Calvin Ridley to name a few.
While Christian Kirk’s been unusually poor to begin the season, and Evan Engram’s status is up in the air with a hamstring strain, Thomas is quickly taking the reigns as this team’s go-to guy down the field.
In two games this season, Thomas is averaging 23.5 yards per catch, which is well above many of the big-name receivers ahead of him in receiving yards this year, including Nico Collins, Davante Adams, Deebo Samuel, Tyreek Hill, CeeDee Lamb and Cooper Kupp.
A lot can be said about the Jags’ offense after two games, but no one should be pointing the finger at Brian Thomas.
In two of his first three seasons behind centre, Trevor Lawrence was a turnover machine, but he’s cleaned up that part of his game so far in 2024. During his rookie campaign, the former Clemson star tossed a league-high 17 interceptions while putting up just three fewer in 2023.
So far this season, Lawrence hasn’t thrown a pick but has been sacked five times in his two starts. His numbers aren’t off the charts like you might expect from the joint-highest-paid quarterback in the league, but at least he’s not giving the opposition short fields to work with or making costly red-zone turnovers like he did a year ago.
Lawrence has completed just 51 percent of his passes, and he’s to blame for some of them. That said, many of his receivers haven’t helped him out either. Christian Kirk, in particular, missed two throws that were right there and could’ve moved the chains in their opening loss to the Miami Dolphins.
When the team added Gabe Davis in the offseason, they did it knowing that he came with some flaws. Yes, he’s a proven deep threat who can make plays down the field, but for every big yardage play he makes, he seemingly has at least a couple of drops regularly. Two games into 2024, he’s caught six of his 10 targets.
Although Lawrence’s numbers aren’t as good as they need to be for the money he’s making, he’s at least not costing this team with poor decisions.
