JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Brian Thomas Jr. stands in front of a JUGS machine after every practice with his hands inches away from it and his thumbs and pointer fingers forming a triangle. The setting on the machine is usually between 2 and 3 -- for reference, when it’s used to simulate a punt it’s set on 6. Each football rockets out between the two spinning wheels and slams into his hands over and over.
And Thomas has caught them nearly every time.
Over the offseason, strengthening his hands was a main goal. The JUGS routine is one of the things the third-year receiver is doing to bounce back from a disappointing 2025 season that saw him catch eight fewer touchdowns than the year before.
“In the spring, very early on, honestly, you could sense that he had really looked at things in areas in which he thought he could improve upon, and he was attacking those areas,” head coach Liam Coen said. “I thought he was extremely intentional about the things he wanted to improve on.”
Coaches and teammates noticed a difference this spring and it has carried over into training camp.
“When you put the work in and just be super intentional about little things like that, you’ll definitely see the work paying off,” Thomas said. “I feel much stronger at the catch point. I’m able to go and do a lot more things. I really just feel stronger in general.”
As a result, there’s optimism that Thomas is headed for the kind of big season he had as a rookie when he ranked third in the league with 1,282 receiving yards.
“He’s playing confident right now,” Coen said.
After making the Pro Bowl as a rookie in 2024, his second season was filled with drops -- five in the first seven games -- and injuries to his left ankle and shoulder that cost him four games. There was also a nagging left wrist injury that started in Week 1 and lingered throughout the season.
At one point the Jaguars moved rookie Travis Hunter ahead of Thomas as WR1, but a knee injury ended Hunter’s season after seven games. The team then traded for Jakobi Meyers in early November, and by the end of the season Parker Washington had become Trevor Lawrence’s No. 1 target.
Thomas finished 2026 with 48 catches for 707 yards and two touchdowns -- and the determination to have his best offseason.
“I knew I had to be super intentional about everything I did, whether it’s just staying focused, staying locked in on catching the ball, staying locked in to the catch point,” he said. “Getting my body right, to come in and be the best I can be, being [in] the best shape I could be. Just little things. My whole offseason was about just fixing all the little things ... that I know I can clean up.”
Thomas put together a workout plan, focused on his nutrition and emphasized improving his hand-eye connection in catching the football. Part of that was actually strengthening his hands by using the JUGS machine as well as jamming his hands into a bucket of sand and moving them around. He also caught tennis balls to improve his focus and worked on making sure he watched the ball all the way from the throw until he tucked it. And he never deviated from his plan.
“It’s basically just growing up,” Thomas said. “I was young. Coming in, I just had to learn. Really, everybody’s got to learn. Coming in and learning, seeing the things that vets do, learning how to take care of your body, what works for you, what doesn’t work for you.”
When he got back around his teammates, they noticed.
“He’s having a great camp so far,” Meyers said. “And it’s just built off the spring. He had one of the better springs that I’ve seen of a younger guy since I’ve been in the league (eight years), but if he’s just doing half of what he’s doing now [during the season], I think he would be in a good spot.”
Receivers coach Edgar Bennett was also impressed.
“It all starts with the mindset [and] he came in with the right mindset,” Bennett said. “He knew these are the areas that I want to improve on. And I mean, he literally takes a day-by-day approach. Every single day we’re improving at something.
“You see BT now loving the process. And [Coen] talks about it all the time, the process, loving the process. And you see a guy loving it.”
Thomas said this is the best he has felt mentally and physically going into a season. His confidence is sky-high, too. That’s evident by what he has done in practice, Coen said, and the rest of the offense is feeding off it.
“I think it brings everybody up,” he said. “It elevates everybody’s game when BT is playing at his highest level.”
