Brian Thomas Camp Update — August 16: The Good Version Keeps Showing Up

Brian Thomas caught a red-zone touchdown from Trevor Lawrence in Thursday's joint practice with the Saints, per Brent Martineau of Action Sports Jax, and that is the shape of his entire camp: end zone, good headlines, no setbacks. The jaguars.com Day 10 observations billed standout days for Thomas, Travis Hunter, and Parker Washington, and the team's notes this week carried nothing negative about him at all. He then sat Saturday's win in New Orleans with the rest of the starters, per John Oehser at jaguars.com, which is what happens to players a team considers settled.

The June preview called Thomas the widest range of outcomes on the board, because his two NFL seasons flatly disagree. The rookie year was borderline elite — nearly 1300 yards, one of the best debuts in football. Year two was a genuine collapse: a catch rate under 50 percent, a drop problem, and just two touchdowns. Our argument was that the target volume never left, that a two-touchdown season on his workload is the kind of drought that almost has to reverse, and that the spring — where he was arguably the offseason-program MVP — leaned toward the bounce. But we refused to pick between the two seasons on practice-field evidence, and said the answer needed game reps.

This week was more of the same lean. A red-zone score from Lawrence against another team's defense is exactly what the drought-reversal case wants to see, and it came in the same practice where Lawrence spread four touchdown throws around the room, meaning Thomas is winning his share of a competitive rotation, not feasting alone.

Does the June read hold? UNCHANGED — the arrow keeps pointing at the rookie version, and this was another week of it, but the question we asked in June was never going to be answered by a practice in Metairie. Which season was real gets decided by catch rate and touchdowns when they count.

Next week: watch whether the Lawrence-to-Thomas deep connection shows up in the remaining camp reports, and whether Thomas takes preseason snaps at all — a clean, drop-free game appearance would be the first hard evidence in the bounce column. We'll check next Sunday.

_Data via nflverse._