Tight end Julius Thomas joined the Jacksonville Jaguars last month after spending the better part of his first four NFL seasons catching balls from Peyton Manning in Denver.
Thomas, who doesn’t view himself as a product of Manning, would like to help his new quarterback become successful.
However, Thomas has a unique way of approaching his job, especially when it comes to second-year Jaguars signal caller Blake Bortles.
I’m hoping that five or six years from now they are saying, ‘You still aren’t any good. You caught passes from Peyton and now you caught passes from Blake. Those guys did all the work. You’re 6-5, put your hands out and the ball just stuck to it.
Thomas is basically indicating that he can just stand there and end up with the ball in his hands.
While this might have worked with a quarterback of Manning’s ilk, Thomas is in for a rude awakening if he thinks Bortles will be able to provide that type of accuracy early. Instead, he’s going to have to be patient with his young quarterback.
If this is Thomas’ attempt to compare these two quarterbacks, most people outside of Lindsey Duke aren’t going to buy it.
In the meantime, we wish Thomas luck in his attempt to mold the 2014 first-round pick into a starter-caliber quarterback. It’s also going to be interesting to see how Bortles responds to a rookie campaign that apparently saw his arm deteriorate as the season drew to a close.
Photo: USA Today Sports