ESPN Predicts Brian Thomas Jr.'s Last Game With the Jaguars Is Sunday Against the Colts
ESPN's Ben Solak predicts both Brian Thomas Jr. and Jonathan Taylor take their final snaps for the teams that drafted them on Sunday — as a league report says belief is growing that Jacksonville will move Thomas before the deadline.
The Brian Thomas Jr. question follows the Jaguars into kickoff. ESPN's Ben Solak is predicting that Sunday's Week 8 matchup against the Colts at EverBank Stadium will be Thomas's last game with Jacksonville, Jaguars Wire reported — and that it will also be Jonathan Taylor's last game with Indianapolis, the team that drafted him.
“I'm predicting that both playmakers will take their final snaps with the teams that drafted them Sunday,” Solak wrote, in the passage Jaguars Wire quoted. With another loss, Solak reasoned, the Colts could probably move Taylor for two Day 2 picks, while another quiet stat line for Thomas could send him, in Solak's scenario, to the Chiefs.
The prediction rests on Thomas's shrinking role. His opportunities have decreased since the start of the season and bottomed out in Week 6, when he played only 15 offensive snaps, and he has nine receptions this season, including none over the Jaguars' last two games. Trade speculation has surrounded him since last year's deadline, and the Jaguars have remained firm that they will not trade him — but The Ringer's Tom Pelissero posted on X on Saturday that Thomas's recent benching and ongoing struggles have ramped up belief within the league that Jacksonville will move him by the deadline.
Head coach Liam Coen struck the opposite note on Monday, reiterating his confidence in Thomas and saying, in the words Jaguars Wire reported, that he is going to be able to help the team make plays this week. Which version Sunday supports — a receiver reasserting himself at home, or a quiet afternoon that feeds the deadline talk — is now a few hours from an answer. Kickoff is 1 p.m. Eastern on CBS.
