If the Jaguars are open to trading Brian Thomas Jr., as has been alleged on Saturday, then the Los Angeles Rams are the usual suspects to make an offer that Jacksonville couldn’t refuse. The Rams need a player like Thomas to take the pressure off of Puka Nacua and Davante Adams, and they have often like trios of star receivers during Sean McVay’s tenure as the head coach.
Should the Rams trade one of their two first round picks for Thomas? That’s mostly a matter of how good you think Thomas is, not how much you think that receiver is a need for L.A.. You may be surprised by how underwhelming Thomas is this season, but is that mostly Trevor Lawrence’s fault?
Believe what you want about the Jacksonville Jaguars, they are not a good football team despite a 4-3 record. I can’t say that they didn’t beat the Chiefs and 49ers, both quality wins, but losing their last two by a combined score of 55-19 is indicative of offensive problems that were bound to bite them.
The Jaguars rank 22nd in scoring, 26th in net yards per pass attempt, 29th in third down percentage, and 21st in the red zone. Jacksonville’s season high for passing yards is just 264, which they did last Sunday against the Rams in London and only because the Jaguars trailed by so many points. Thomas may be better than his numbers indicate, I just want to point out that his numbers are really bad for a WR1:
His Week 1 game against the Panthers went as poorly as it could have gone, catching one pass for 11 yards on seven targets. The next week wasn’t much better, gaining 49 yards on 12 targets. Then next week, Thomas only caught two of six targets.
That is an appalling catch rate of 28% through the first three games.
Though the numbers have picked up since then — 20 of 30, 250 yards, 1 TD, 66% catch rate, 8.3 yards per target — they are far from what Thomas was doing as a rookie first round pick out of LSU. Thomas had over 1,200 yards as a rookie and in his last six games of 2024, he had 50 catches for 675 yards and 5 touchdowns. Thomas actually played more snaps with Mac Jones than he did with Lawrence and clearly there’s a chemistry issue between the quarterback and receiver.
That could just be because Lawrence is one of the most overrated players in the NFL.
Even so, the Jaguars are prone to making personnel mistakes and they might be open to trading Thomas if he isn’t meshing well with Lawrence and head coach Liam Coen. I don’t really believe rumors spread by Dianna Russini, however even absent that report, I think Jacksonville would be open to trading Thomas because the Jaguars are about to fall apart and there’s an apparent chemistry issue at play. The Jags also don’t have a first round pick in 2026 because they traded it to move up for a receiver/corner.
If one team would make a trade with the Jaguars for a receiver, wouldn’t it be the Rams?
Rams-Jaguars connection
The general manager of the Jaguars is James Gladstone, who was mentored by Les Snead. If Snead wants a receiver, he’d probably get first dibs from Gladstone. It was only four years ago that Snead tapped mentee Brad Holmes to trade him Matthew Stafford after he got to Detroit.
Second, Snead loves trading for receivers and star players in general. He did it with Sammy Watkins. He did it with Brandin Cooks. And on the defensive side of the ball he made a major splash midseason trade with the Jaguars for Jalen Ramsey.
It’s sensible to believe that Snead wants to know if the Jaguars are trading a 23-year-old receiver who had 1,200 yards last season.
Even though Puka Nacua could be the best receiver in the NFL, he missed the last game with an injury and he has left THREE games so far due to injury already. Nacua plays hard and puts himself at risk constantly, so it might behoove L.A. to bring in more players worthy of Stafford’s attention. Despite missing a game, Nacua still leads the NFL in targets (65) right now.
Davante Adams is right behind him at 63 targets, but Adams is 33 and his targets have only produced 431 yards. That’s an average of 6.8 yards per target and Adams has the lowest catch percentage (49.2%) of his career.
If Thomas and Adams were split out wide, Nacua could do serious damage in the slot just like his former mentor Cooper Kupp. And Stafford could be all but unstoppable if defenses had to account for three receivers instead of just two or one.
Financially, the trade would be a no-brainer because Thomas is on his rookie contract through 2028 (with the fifth-year option) and he’s the type of player you jump on if he becomes available this young. The move would also prevent a rival from potentially trading for Thomas, such as the contending 49ers or Seahawks. Even the Cardinals would want to throw their hat in that ring given the current situation around Marvin Harrison (a receiver drafted earlier than Thomas) and the lack of depth at the position behind him.
Should the Rams be willing to dangle their own first round pick (because it’s likely to be lower than Atlanta’s) for Thomas?
Perhaps. If Gladstone and Coen are actually open to it, then the Rams are going to be on the list of suitors, the connection makes too much sense. Thomas frees up Nacua for the next few years and opens the door for an easy exit out of the Adams situation in 2026, when he will probably be released or retire. If the Rams don’t trade a first for a receiver, they’re probably going to be considering using it on a receiver in the draft anyway.
The Jaguars will probably soon refute these claims anyway. But because of the relationship between the Jaguars front office and the Rams front office, it would be surprising if they aren’t have conversations before the deadline and then anything is possible.
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