Jaguars Offensive Coordinator sees a lot of potential in this rookie wide receiver

The Jags will close out their preseason tonight in Atlanta and then there will be decisions to be made regarding reducing their roster to 53 players. One Jaguar who will definitely be on the roster is rookie Brian Thomas Jr.

Jaguars Offensive Coordinator Press Taylor spoke recently about the development that he has seen in the rookie wide receiver from LSU. Here’s what Press had to say to the media earlier this week.

On WR Brian Thomas Jr.’s progress throughout camp

I think it's similar to what we were talking about. You keep seeing these steps that you want to see. Again, I don't think he's where he's going to be when we kick off whatever day our first game is, September something. I don't think he's there yet, but he's a lot further ahead than he was when we came together at the start of training camp. For that to carry over, for him to make a play in that first preseason game, you just saw his confidence rise, for him to perform well in joint practices against Tampa. You just see this progression and you see a little bit more of him becoming who we knew he would be. Again, I think he's a long way from where he's going to be in two weeks, let alone 18 weeks from now. It's just been cool to see him build the confidence in himself, build the confidence in the work he's put in and I think he's just going to continue to grow from here.

On how impressive Thomas Jr.’s sideline catch was on Saturday vs. Tampa Bay

Yeah, I mean that's kind of what you see is a guy that when he's going to get free access, has a little bit of route technique to him that does a good job, and then being friendly at the top of the route breaking the sideline, catching the ball on the sideline. I thought that was a good catch going out of bounds. But that's something—always using the threat of speed. That's something you want all these receivers to do, but we've talked about guys get defended based on their reputation. People are going to know he's a 4.2 guy. So, he's going to get that respect in some aspect so it's how does he utilize it every single route? It could be a six-yard route. Can we get him to sell speed from the jump and then it could be some of those routes where it's a stutter comeback that gets him up to 18 yards, something like that? It's just kind of him owning each route and what it looks like. It's going to look different on one side than it does on the other based on who's running the route.