Jags’ Thomas, Hunter share snaps in 11 personnel

“I bet it, I know it. We’re gonna continue to support him, throw our arm around him and continue to do what we gotta do to make plays on Sunday. We gotta continue to put him in the best position to do so. BT works at it. He cares about this, he cares about winning and losing, he cares about his team. We all wanna see guys have success individually, but I’m excited about attacking this week with BT,” Coen continued. We’ll believe it when we see it, but at least it sounds like an endorsement that Thomas will remain in the playbook to some extent in Week 8. Fantasy managers that aren’t under duress probably shouldn’t tempt fate by putting Thomas, who did not catch a pass in two weeks in England, in lineups.

Schefter didn’t directly cite any sources, but the dots are extremely easy to connect. Thomas Jr. has been the subject of trade rumors for the past year and his role has all but disappeared this season. He hasn’t caught a pass since Week 4 and was benched in the second half of the team’s Week 6 loss to Houston. At this point, a trade is seemingly in the best interest of both parties. Expect the market for Thomas Jr. to heat up ahead of the November 10th deadline.

Appearing on ESPN Saturday morning, Fowler, citing Thomas’ zero catches over the last two weeks, said something has to give in this situation. According to several teams the NFL Insider talked to, Thomas could be traded over the next few weeks. Fowler listed the Chiefs and Steelers as potentially interested teams and was emphatic that there will be suitors for Thomas. If you have Thomas in fantasy, it’s hard to imagine his value getting worse with a change of scenery. The Jaguars would appear content to roll with Parker Washington, Jakobi Meyers and Travis Hunter as their top receivers in the event of a Thomas trade.

Shipley mentions the Commanders and Rams as wideout-desperate teams who might be interested in trading for Thomas before the NFL’s trade deadline. The Jaguars have apparently soured on the one-time burgeoning star in recent weeks; against the Texans in Week 6, Thomas ran a pass route on just 28 percent of the Jags’ drop backs and saw two targets. The Commanders, meanwhile, lost Terry McLaurin to a potentially long-term knee injury on Monday night. Thomas, per Shipley, “is not a trade that would make a ton of sense for a Commanders team that might be losing a ton of games and needs their picks to rebuild ... but it would make sense for a general manager who needs to keep his job to give his quarterback a familiar and talented target. Daniels was Thomas’ quarterback during their final seasons at LSU, and the connection between the two could go a long-way toward solving some of Washington’s long-term issues at the wide receiver position.” BTJ’s fantasy prospects would get a big boost if he were to land in Washington in the coming weeks.

Coen benched Thomas for the entire second half after he had one drop and two non-catches in the first against Houston. It sure seems like the runway for Thomas is running out in Jacksonville. A potential trade is the only fantasy salvation coming for the third-year receiver as he looks buried here.

That’s three games with three or fewer targets and Thomas Jr. has put up back-to-back bagels in London, apparently distraught over the local cuisine. He absolutely does not have to be rostered in most fantasy leagues through Jacksonville’s Week 7 bye.

In London, where Travis Hunter’s best games live, Hunter both caught a touchdown and picked off C.J. Stroud (his first of the season), becoming the first player to do both in the same game since Brian Dawkins in 2002. Hunter did all this on just nine offensive snaps. The skill is there to do this on offense, but the Jaguars have really been defense-first with his snaps this year. Depending on the post-bye buzz, Hunter could be a reasonable pick-up in fantasy leagues ahead of Week 8’s games.

This game started with Jaguars defensive end Bryan Thomas Jr. getting ejected on the opening kickoff. He would go on to catch as many passes as his wide receiver doppelganger. BTJ nearly saved face with a late touchdown, but he failed to drag his back foot and stepped out of bounds for an incompletion. Josh Cameron, the team’s WR4, saw six targets. Thomas Jr. simply doesn’t have much of a role in this offense anymore. He will be the subject of trade speculation in the coming weeks. That seems to be his only path to meaningful fantasy production.

Though he was still No. 3 in wide receiver snaps agains the Bengals, Thomas saw more snaps this week than his 23-snap game against the Patriots last week. He out-snapped Josh Cameron 38-to-22 and caught Trevor Lawrence’s sole touchdown pass of the afternoon. Despite the score, Thomas’ lesser role relegates him to the WR3 spot in the Jaguars offense as he tied for fourth in targets against the Bengals. Thomas is a touchdown-dependent fantasy play and should be in the WR5 range for Week 5 against the Eagles.

Sports Illustrated’s John Shipley believes that Cameron’s usage (23 snaps) could make it “stand[s] to reason Thomas could quickly become the fourth option instead” in a column that says he believes a “new start would be best for both parties.” It sounds like there’s a non-zero chance that Thomas is on the trade block at the deadline, as weird as that seems given how good the Jaguars have been on offense. Thomas isn’t necessarily someone who has to be rostered in shallow leagues given how things are trending.