Where the Jaguars, Brian Thomas Jr. Must Go From Here After Trade Deadline

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The trade deadline is over, and the Jacksonville Jaguars are ready to look forward.

Looking forward means different things for everyone. The Jaguars as a team have their sights set on Week 10 against the Tennessee Titans, and eventually a playoff push. But for Jaguars wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr., what is ahead could greatly determine his future with the Jaguars after the deadline came and went without him being sent to a new team.

Where the Jaguars, Thomas Jr. Go From Here

The rumors around a potential Thomas trade swirled for a month-plus after he was benched during the second-half of the Jaguars' 34-31 loss to the Houston Texans in Week 6, but the Jaguars came out of their Week 7 bye with Thomas still as a part of the offense. He saw two targets combined in the last two games (one for a touchdown) but he was still the team's clear No. 3 receiver instead of rookie receiver Josh Cameron.

The Jaguars have always seen Thomas as a team-player, hard-worker, and a valuable piece of their culture and locker room. He is well-liked by the franchise as a whole, as evidenced by his teammates swarming him after his touchdown against the Colts in Week 8. And with the Jaguars clearly looking to add to their talent pool at the trade deadline, it seemed like a Thomas trade was less and less likely the closer the deadline got.

“We have a ton of value when it comes to BTJ. His role and what I imagine his contribution will be down the stretch here is going to be notable," Jaguars general manager James Gladstone said after the deadline on Tuesday. "He's such a good person to work with, such a good teammate, and so I expect a lot of good that comes in what lies in front, knowing that at this point in time, our wide receiver room in particular has got such a range of skill sets at its disposal and those that complement each other really well.

And when you think beyond that, the pass catchers that we have at our disposal when you start working in the tight end group and the running back room, it just allows our offense to be multiple. It allows us to be able to activate guys in different ways and in different games that looks different from one to the next. I think that ability to jump from one to the next is certainly going to benefit us here in the rest of the season and look forward to that being the case beyond.”

In short ... the Jaguars still value Thomas and how his skill-set meshes with the rest of the receiver room, even if it has resulted in just 10 catches for 117 yards and two touchdowns this season -- all numbers well below what he even accomplished last season in a year that was quite a step back from his rookie season.

Now that the Jaguars opted to keep Thomas on the roster as they look to make their push, there are only a few directions the team, and the receiver, can go.

Simply put, all they can do for the rest of 2026 is to keep chopping away at it with the hopes of the downfield plays eventually coming. Thomas has been targeted on just three deep passes all season, with two incompletions and one interception as a result. The Jaguars' passing game has focused on finding explosives in the middle of the field, an area Thomas is not at his best.

But with the Jaguars turning down the chance to recoup some of their lost trade picks after the Jordan Davis and Jessie Bates moves, Jacksonville has put the onus on themselves to get Thomas more involved. He has rarely been targeted over the last few weeks, and many of his routes against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 9 were hitches or clearout routes, making it the first game of his career he hasn't been targeted in.

But the Jaguars still believe there is value there, whether as a receiver, as a run-blocker, or as a teammate. They must now start to tap into it.

“Yeah, absolutely. I think the guy's just done his job. He comes to work every day and works his tail off, and him and Trevor [Lawrence] are continuing to work together on it, and the time's going to continue to come," Liam Coen said Wednesday.

For Thomas, that means making the most of his oppurtunities. Thomas going on a run during the second-half of the season would do more than just quiet the noise in Jacksonville, but it couldboost his value and appeal to other teams next March when it would make much more sense for a Thomas deal to happen.

Had the Jaguars traded Thomas on Tuesday, they would have been making their roster worse in the middle of a hopeful Super Bowl run. If they do it in March, there could be more teams open to trading, the Jaguars could make more moves at receiver to offset his loss, and they could even have more confidence in Cameron as a true replacement entering his second season instead of in the middle of his rookie year.

Thomas can still benefit from being a Jaguar for the rest of the season. The Jaguars can also still get value for Thomas down the road. But for that to happen, the Jaguars need to give him chances to shine, and he will need to take advantage of them.

Add us as a preferred source on Google