I'd be shocked if he averaged 13 yards-per-catch and caught 6 TD. A stat line of 70/750/2 would not surprise me at all though.
If everyone stays healthy, its never gonna happen.In the entire tenure of Jack Del Rio coaching this team, the stats strongly do not suggest Thomas will come anywhere close to this number unless he passes Mike Sims-Walker and becomes the #1 WR on this team.
You have to go all the way back to Jimmy Smith to find a WR that has caught 70 passes in a season for the Jags. Over the past 7 seasons, the leading WR has caught an avarage of 60.
In almost every single year during these 7 years, the 2nd leading receiver on the team has been the
RB.
The #2 WR in these past 7 seasons has averaged 43 catches a year.
All this has occurred regardless of whether the Jags were having a good year or bad year, had a good defense or average one, or had a good or bad offense. In one particular year, they ranked in the top 2 in average offensive yards per game, but the stat lines stayed remarkably the same.
Its nothing against Thomas or his talent. Its just simply that this team's style suggests that when they are good, they are gonna play defense and run, run, run, and that limits the airing it out. When they are bad and pass more, they aren't a team with enough offensive creativity to light up a score board. Del Rio has been there since 2003 and every year the end numbers are almost identical when it comes to FF production from these three positons.
So, if MSW gets hurt or Thomas becomes the #1 in some other fashion; doesn't really matter. The #1 WR in this offense has only caught 70 or more balls twice in almost a decade so I don't see that there will suddenly be some morphing of this team to where the #2 suddenly is putting up numbers that the #1 has been struggling to achieve for the past 7 seasons.
Sometimes you simply are what you are.
