WATCH: Jaguars Star Gives Insight On NFL's Top WR

What did Brian Thomas Jr. have to say about the Minnesota Vikings in Week 10?

Sep 23, 2024; Orchard Park, New York, USA; Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr. (7) tries to avoid a tackle by Buffalo Bills cornerback Cam Lewis (39) after making a catch in the third quarter at Highmark Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Konezny-Imagn Images / Mark Konezny-Imagn Images

Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr. spoke to the media on Thursday, and as always we were there for it all.

To listen to his interview, view above.

Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson also spoke on Monday. Below is a transcript of what he said.

Q: On injury updates following Sunday’s game?

Pederson: “Anton's [OL Anton Harrison] fine. Just tweaked his knee. They looked at it, taped it up, braced it during the game. He should be fine. [OL] Brandon Scherff, same thing. Because he was coming out of the week before with his knee injury. Played extremely tough, physical, but he'll be fine. He's sore, kind of day-to-day. Should be fine. [OL] Cooper Hodges is the one that we're going to miss him, probably for the rest of the year. That was a significant leg injury during the game. So, we'll miss him, obviously. BT [WR Brian Thomas Jr.] came out fine. Ezra [OL Ezra Cleveland] obviously wasn't active. So yeah, I mean, we'll find out Wednesday.”

Q: On RB Tank Bigsby and RB Travis Etienne’s injury statuses following the game?

Pederson: “Tank, good. Yeah. Both good.”

Q: On QB Trevor Lawrence’s injury status following the game?

Pederson: “He's sore. Played tough, played physical. Scramble took the one shot there, I think in the second quarter, I think it was. Obviously felt that one, but good. Came out fine.”

Q: On if he thought Lawrence might not have played in the second half after being the last player to leave the locker room?

Pederson: “No, I didn't. No, it was just a precaution. Just still with the medical team at that time, just a double check, triple check. We knew coming out that he could be coming out late. I told him, ‘Don't be too late because we get the ball to start the second half.’”

Q: On if they would classify it as shoulder discomfort?

Pederson:“As of right now, yes.”

Q: On WR Brian Thomas Jr. and TE Brenton Strange’s lack of targets against Philadelphia?

Pederson: “If you specifically watch the football game and not follow the ball, you will see what Philly did in kind of normal-down situations. Some on third-down as they had a corner and a safety. So, they basically doubled BT. It's hard to throw the ball over there to a guy that's doubled. So, you have to go other places with the ball. So that was part of their game plan. What we had seen during the week and scouting, and all of that in situations, they didn't necessarily present those coverages. So, you have to make adjustments throughout the game. In Brenton's case, I think it's probably more on us to not get him more involved. But I think, too, when you look at this game, some of the struggles of just staying efficient on first-down, some of the second-down stuff just kind of takes you a little bit out of rhythm and the flow of the game just a little bit. We had opportunities. We had, I think, four or five third-and-fours in this game, and we don't capitalize. I mean, those are things that have haunted us this season. So, it takes you away from getting to things in your game plan that can obviously help you.”

Q: On DE Travon Walker looking like a running back during his fumble recovery returned for a touchdown?

Pederson: Yeah, heck of a play. Heck of a play. Great awareness, wanting to get on that ball, which is something our defense preaches a lot when balls are on the ground like that and broke a few tackles, got a nice block down the field and got into the endzone. So, it looked pretty good.”

Q: On how much second-guessing do he and the coaching staff do after a game for specific situations?

Pederson: “I mean, obviously, on a Monday, you can sit in here and watch the tape and a little bit calmer eyes and probably, ‘should’ve, could’ve, would’ve,’ right? You play that game with yourself all the time. Trust me, that's what beats you up as a coach, right? You go back and you replay it, and you're like, ‘Ah, we could have done that,’ or ‘We could have done this,’ or, ‘We could have got to that.’ A lot of times, too, you're in the heat of the moment. At the end of the game, you're trying to score, but at the same time, you're trying to reduce the clock a little bit, right? Take time off the clock. So, you look at those situations where, could you run the ball there? Certainly, certainly. But you also now, yeah, you're taking time off the clock, but now you're risking maybe a second-and-10, a second-and-12, right? I don't know. You play mental gymnastics all day. As a coach, you can’t—on a Monday, you can talk to your football team about situational football and situational awareness and say, ‘OK, we can't do that. We can't do that as a football team, right, in those situations.’ And as coaches, you go, ‘We could have done this. We could have done that. We should have done this. We should have done that.’ And that's the part that beats you up all the time as you—the longer you're in this business, the longer you coach it, the longer you play it, I think every coach goes through it. Every player is going to go through it. You know, it's not exact. It's not perfect. Guys battle extremely. I mean, you saw yesterday, we had guys play tough, played hurt. You're trying to put them in the best situations possible. Sometimes guys play out of position because we need them to. We ask them to. You know, so we do the best we can in those moments to try to just win a game.”

Q: On if there was something that could have been executed better on the final pass play?

Pederson: “Well, at the end of the day, it was a heck of a play. I mean, heck of a play. Now, the coaching side comes down and says we can detail the route a little bit better. You know, it is a route. It's been our offense for a long time. We can coach D'Ernest [RB D’Ernest Johnson] on it. Etienne [RB Travis Etienne Jr.] had similar routes during the game, and we can just coach them better, right? We can detail those better. But at the end of the day, we can tell Trevor to throw it away. If it's not there, just throw it away. Live for a second-down. You know, all those kinds of things. But at the end of the day, I would say that [Eagles LB] Nakobe Dean made a heck of a football play.”

Q: On where he feels the team stacks up against their opponents whom they’ve lost close games to?

Pederson: “Well, it's exactly what I pointed out to him today. Two weeks ago, the Packers, I think, were in the NFC Championship game a year ago, right? Team we played yesterday was in the Super Bowl just recently. Then you point out the mistakes that coaches and players make on our side. It encourages you because you're that close. I mean, you're just a play away, right? You just never know when those plays are going to come. Those moments are going to come in the game. Your awareness as a coach, your awareness as a player, we've got to be on the same page, we've got to communicate, all those things. But it does encourage you that you can play with these guys. Quite frankly, you eliminate a few mistakes, we don't give them 13 points off the turnovers. And the week before, we don't give them 14 points off the turnovers. Things could be different, right? Go back to Miami. I keep going back to that game. We fumble on the two. Next play, it's 80 yards their in the end zone. So that's the part that we have to, as a team, we have to overcome. We have to eliminate. I think it gives us a better chance.”

Q: On if the players are embracing the closeness of games?

Pederson: “Number one. I think he's right from the standpoint of the parity around the NFL right now. Games are coming into the fourth quarter. I mean, look at just our—just take us. We have five games of the seven, are one score. Six points or less, right? And it's those guys that, as you say, coin the phrase, ‘they want the ball.’ It's the Michael Jordan's. It's the Kobe Bryant's. It's those guys that say, ‘Hey, give me the ball, whatever that looks like, defensively, Foye [LB Foye Oluokun], put the ball in our hands. Last second kick, quarterback, whoever it is. And let me make the play to win the game,’ right? That's what you grow up dreaming of as a kid, playing this game. When you run around with your buddies and you're making plays, like, hey, one day, I want to see myself making that play on a big stage. So, I do think we have guys in the locker room that feel the same way. We just have to continue to give ourselves and we’ve given ourselves opportunities. We just now have to capitalize on them.”

Q: On how frustrating it is to see the offense get off to slow starts?

Pederson: “Well, that's the thing about it. You know, we say it as coaches. It's like, ‘Let's go tempo,’ right? I mean, I hear it all the time. Why don't you go up-tempo? Well, yeah, I mean, the downside is you were on the field for 30 seconds, and you're punting the football. The upside is you get your quarterback in a rhythm. You get your offense in a rhythm, and you potentially end up with three or seven points, right? The other thing is first down, if you want to go tempo, you’d better get positive yards on first down, right? If you try to run or throw, it doesn't matter. If it's incomplete a second-and-10, or you run in your second-and-12, yeah, that's kind of hard to go tempo after that. So, we have to do a better job on that first huddle call of that execution, and just getting positive [yards]. Get the drive started, right? I think that's the key is just get the drive started, and then you can be on the ball from there.”

Q: On the difficulty of getting into a rhythm on offense without extending drives?

Pederson: “I mean, there was a lot of—I think in the game yesterday for us offensively, three-and-outs, or five-and-outs, or short possessions, where that's the part that's frustrating too, right? You want to get into that rhythm. Some of that is part of football too, right? I mean, that's just your opponent making plays. That's what they get paid to do. So that's just the ebb and flow of a game. But I don't see our guys getting down. I don't see our guys being dejected on the sideline. There's a great communication on the sideline. A lot of encouragement, like, ‘Hey, we'll make that play the next time, or suggest this, suggest that.’ And really, I think just the feeling of like, it's close. To your point, I mean, it's close, right? We just need that one play to get us going.”

Q: On if he attributes the slow starts to the offensive script?

Pederson: “I think the number one thing you’ve got to look at, you’ve got to look at the third-downs, right? When we talk about first down, you have to get the get positive, and we've had positive yards on for—we had a great first play yesterday. We’re just a fingertip away from being an explosive play, right? 53 [Eagles LB Zack Braun] makes a heck of a play. That's football. They get paid to make plays, too, right? OK, if Trevor throws it six inches further, it's a completion to Evan [TE Evan Engram], 20-yard gain, and we're feeling great. So those things, the plays are there, right? Yeah, part of its execution. Part of its—OK, there's a little unknown too, as to how the defense is going to look at us, because with the injury situation we had and different things.  How are they going to look at us, how are they going to play us? But then we get to third-down. We hit Parker [WR Parker Washington] on the first one, great execution. He and Trevor, it was a third-and-seven or eight. I don't know, we got 10, 11 yards, whatever. But then on the next one, it's third-and-four, same drive. We get a little pressure on Trevor. And then we have BT open, we just can't get him the football. So it's kind of that give-and-take. We got to strain a little bit better. As coaches, we’ve got to put our players in situations where third-and-four is a good situation, but maybe if we're better on first and second-down, maybe that's third-and-two, and you can do some different things. So, I think we, as a staff, have to look at the third-downs, quite honestly, and see if there's something there differently that we can do or move some guys around within the scheme of things and try to stay on the field.” 

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