It’s that slow time of the National Football League offseason where the atmosphere is filled with speculation and prognostications. The NFL is truly a 365-day-per-year sport and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Sure, it’s mid-June, but let’s talk about potential candidates for Most Valuable Player of the Year.
At first glance, the Jacksonville Jaguars wouldn’t seem to have many potential winners for the award, but upon closer inspection, they still don’t. If we’re just looking at the type of player who usually wins, it’s the quarterback. So realistically, Trevor Lawrence would have to be the only guy with a legitimate shot. But, he could have an incredible year – like Joe Burrow did last year – and still not win.
Pro Football Network examines the case of wide receiver Brian Thomas, Jr. He’s coming off of a great rookie season in which the Jaguars were bad and Lawrence only played 10 games.
“Is LSU “WR U”?,” PFN writes. “It’s hard to argue otherwise with names like Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr. coming out of Baton Rouge.”
This assessment of LSU wide receivers is a bit myopic as it leaves out obvious names like Justin Jefferson, Ja’Marr Chase and even Odell Beckham, Jr. LSU is indeed WR U now and, yes, Thomas is yet another reason for the moniker.
“Thomas has already emerged as Trevor Lawrence’s go-to guy,” PFN continues. “Though the Jacksonville Jaguars drafted two-way star Travis Hunter, it’s not yet clear how they’ll use him. Thomas built a quick connection with Lawrence, finishing his rookie year with 87 catches, 1,282 yards, and 10 touchdowns. He also ranked sixth in yards after catch with 562 yards.”
And, that was with just 10 games with Lawrence.
Can the Jags have an MVP if they have a bad season?
The easy answer to that is ‘no.’ Sports don’t usually hand out MVP awards to players on losing teams, but it happened twice notably in baseball. Andre Dawson won MVP on a lousy Chicago Cubs team in 1987 and Alex Rodriguez did it in 2003 for the Texas Rangers before the Yankees backed up the Brinks truck the following year. In the NFL, Paul Hornung did it for the Green Bay Packers back in 1961, but that’s forever ago.
So, it can be done. And, as PFN notes, Thomas is already the top dog in Jacksonville and the addition of Travis Hunter should only help.
“With Christian Kirk and Engram gone, Thomas could exceed his 25.5% target share from last season,” PFN writes. “Hunter could draw coverage away, creating more 1-on-1 chances for Thomas. But Jacksonville was one of the worst teams last year, and another bad season would keep Thomas (and everyone else) out of MVP consideration.”
Thomas will succeed even with Hunter
As previously mentioned, the addition of Hunter, the rookie first-round draft pick, will certainly affect the offense. On one hand, it’s another mouth to feed and that’s true. But, the benefit for Thomas will be that teams simply cannot key on him alone. That was much easier to do last year when there weren’t other weapons to worry about in the passing game and the running game was relatively non-existent.
The truth is, Thomas should be even more dynamic with Hunter in the fold because he takes attention off of Thomas, but the Jags still don’t have so many weapons that Thomas’ overall production will hindered. For teams like the Philadelphia Eagles, there is only one football and a slew of hungry players that want to eat.
In Jacksonville, Thomas will still be the main guy who gets – as Chris Rocks says – the “big piece of chicken.” That said, the chicken won’t be big enough warrant serious consideration for the MVP Award.
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