The Julius Thomas Liability

I think his best attribute to the run game is how he'll change defensive alignments...he'll make teams use "coverage" LBers and move them out of the box; hopefully that will create running lanes and mismatches in our favor.

 

I'm not thrilled about the julius thomas trade. He is overpayed, underperforms, and is also very injury prone. Its the same thing we had with jordan cameron an underperforming injury prone tight end who we hoped would regain the pro bowl form he had earlier in his career. At least Cameron is a decent blocker and a whole lot cheaper.

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He is not a great blocker. Everyone would agree with that. He's a pass first TE.

However, I think that it can be debated as to how much his blocking issues should have been him, and how much the problem was with poor coaching, poor scheme, poor player usage, and poor quality of his teammates.

It should also be noted that the Jaguars weren't terrible at running the football in either of the two years that he was there. They averaged 4.2 YPA both seasons, which is league average. Their problem is that because they suck, they were forced to abandon the run early and often, and had among the fewest rush attempts in the league.

The two seasons that Thomas was in Denver, they actually averaged slightly fewer yards per rush than the Jags did, but they ran the ball at a league average rate, and had a total of 31 rushing TDs in those two seasons, compared to just 13 for the Jags in Thomas's two seasons there.

In the end, if he can stay healthy, I feel confidant that Gase will do a much better job of using him in ways that are positive for the offense, compared to what Jax did.

 

I don't really agree with this underlying premise that Dion Sims didn't produce because he was pass blocking too often. I doubt he was blocking over 20% of his eligible passing down snaps. It takes away from snaps where he can catch the ball, but I think a guy like Sims needs to be put in that position to be productive as a pass catcher- physically he's got to be able to sucker his defender thinking he is a blocker to get a good release.

 

You have to have a QB that will throw to the TE. I feel "better" about the trade since Gase knows the guy.

 

Honestly, I really dont care about Thomas's liability as a run blocker. He is a seam threat TE which is a weapon we have been lacking for quite awhile on this team. Gase knows how to use him and what he does and does not do well.

 

I think sims didn't produce more because we didn't throw to him enough. Whenever we threw it to him most of the time he made great plays. We started working him more into the playbook toward the end of the season. Remember he was injured for a while and this is gase's first year with him in this offense I think it just took a while for him to gain gase's confidence and get in sync with the offense. While he is not speedster he is big and athletic I think next year he will break out if he is back.

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Hopefully Gase "without a Hall of Fame QB"
can get Thomas back to his old form

 

I'm going to hold out hope that Gase knows what he's doing(he sure earned that after last season) and that he thinks Thomas can regain his old form. If that happens, I'd love to see what having a great red zone threat does to our offense, run game and other receivers.

 

Hopefully this trade prevents a meaningless TE pick in this years draft.
Casuallties are to high to count on that list.....just keep it defense please.

 

TE is far from the most pressing need now, but if they decide to grab a TE in the fifth round, who cares? At that point you are looking at potential and hoping to find a player other teams overlooked. If you need a starter, well, things are probably not going to go well at that point.

That said, I'd like to see a LB or two at that point, as they make for better special teams players.