Jacksonville Jaguars’ Brian Thomas Jr.And Travis Hunter Primed to DOMINATE as GAME CHANGERS In 2026

0:00This is the Lockdown Podcast Network celebrating 10 years of your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by the Dell XPS. I'm Wes Goldberg from Lockdown NBA Daily and Lockdown Heat. So what does it feel like to have a better laptop like the Dell XPS powered by Intel Core? With a premium design that's thin and light, it feels smooth. With a responsive touch screen, it feels fast and precise. And with long lasting battery life, it feels like non-stop energy with a laptop that can keep up. Built for those who want better, the Dell XPS. Built for you. Now that the roster is set, at least for right now, it's time to talk offensive and defensive game changers. One guy on both sides of the ball will do it here on Lockdown Jaguar. You are Lockdown Jaguar, your daily Jacksonville Jaguar podcast.

1:01Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. What a good focus. I'm Tony Wiggins, the host of the Lockdown Jaguar's podcast. And today's show and episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account and use code Lockdown for $20 off your first purchase. Now I'll tell you what we will discuss today at the end of the show. We'll talk about the cream rising to the top and exactly what that means specifically. In the middle of the show, we'll go game changers on defense, but we're going to start the show talking about game changers on offense. It will be very, very easy for me and very, as some people may call it, click baitish to say, give me an offensive and a defensive player on both sides of the ball that can be a game changer, but we're going to make that the same person. Travis Hunter. That's not what we're going to do today. I was tempted because I do believe he'll have a tremendous impact for the Jacksonville Jaguars on both sides of the ball as he continues to try to defy logic and the odds and everything

2:05we have ever known about the NFL where you need to really, really focus on repetition and you need to work your reps and make sure that you understand all the idiosyncrasies of all of these different positions. And I say positions with an S because on the offensive side of the ball, it's not just wide receiver. There's a bunch of them. His X, his Y, there's F. There's all of these things, right? Not wide, that's more of a tight end, but you get my point. X, Z and F, right? That's pretty much the way the Jaguars run it if I'm not mistaken. But we're going to save him for something else. I'm going to switch my focus back to where I think it was at this time last year, a week before the NFL season was starting. And I said the most important player on the team, on the offense outside of the quarterback of course, who is Trevor Lawrence was Brian Thomas Jr. I'm going to go right back to that. But I'm going to explain why I'm going back to Brian Thomas Jr. being the most important

3:09player outside of Trevor Lawrence. We can argue that it's Anton Harrison, the left tackle, Robert Hainsey, we can go through that all day because everyone has their level of importance. But we ain't coaches, we're not breaking that down like that. Well, we're breaking it down from our game changers. That's what we're talking about. We're talking about people that have the ability, whether it be because of their position or because of the way that they can impact the game with their individual ability. How will they have an impact on the game and make it a game changing place each week? And that is important because you may not need that to beat teams that you're favorite to beat by two touchdowns. You may not need it to beat teams that you're favorite to beat by one touchdown. There's a chance that if you're underdog, you don't need a big play. The Jaguar was one 13 games last year and on a bunch of those games, they didn't make

4:10what you consider game changing or chunk plays on both sides of the ball. They did some and Tony Johnson did on special teams, of course, Parker Washington with the punt return. There were things, but it wasn't enough of those things. The Jaguar basically grinded their way to a whole bunch of wins last year and they got away with a couple of two. I remind people all the time, as magical as 13 and 4 sounds on paper, they got away with a couple in Arizona and in Las Vegas that they probably, they were this close to not beating bad teams, right? I think they're going to be a better ball club this year. I think teams that don't have a chance against them won't have a chance against them. I don't think anyone's going to blow them out, as I've said in the past, but what's going to separate them from being just another team that makes the playoffs and gets into the playoffs and plays a tough, closely contested game and then happens to lose that game. What's going to separate them from being a team like in 2023?

5:13Yeah, it was 2023. It wins a playoff game, goes and plays a competitive playoff game the next week like they did on the road against the cheese and then lose. The difference in both of these games, the Buffalo game last year and the last time they made the playoffs before that in 2023 when they lost in Arrowhead Stadium is they lacked playmakers. They lacked a dude that could turn a game upside down. You've seen them throughout the, man, I ain't got to tell you who they are in the league, you know who they are. You know the guys that have seemed like they did something extra. They had the ability to rise above everyone else and make something happen. This is why I'm going back with Brian Thomas Jr. Last year I got all over everybody, even people on our network that put Travis Hunter in the top 100 and didn't put Brian Thomas Jr. in the top 100 after he had 1200 yards receiving

6:14as a rookie. I was 38 hot about that. I said this dude's the best player on the team outside of the quarterback. Well, at least on offense, that's what I said. He's a game changer. He's a tad under six three runs of four three. He catches everything. He plays with speed. He outruns folks. He's the one that can get deep on a post or a nine route. He can take a screen and go all the way. He can take a quick slam and split the defense. He has the speed and the ability to do that. And then we had last year and we had those things that occur. I think he has had a very good quiet but good offseason. He does look a little bit bigger physically. You haven't seen him in a actual Jaguar uniform on the sideline because they didn't play anybody in the preseason. But he looks a little bigger. He looks a little stronger. We haven't seen those drops. I think I saw one drop but it was a tough catch. He almost came down with it. But all the other catches, all the other long throws that weren't bad throws.

7:14Brian Thomas Jr. He came up with him. Well, there was joint practice, whether it's been one on one with the Jaguars and they still go to him. They still treat him like he is a number one. When they line up, when these receivers come out, line up, Brian Thomas Jr. is right at the front of the line. I don't know if he's there every time. Maybe it's a Kobe Myerson. He got that contract stands in front of the line. But he is someone that they are going to count on. And he is also someone that every single coach, if you mentioned his name during a question in an A or Q and A, every single coach will tell you. I don't know why everybody keeps saying he had a bad year. They don't say it like that, but they kind of said it. Anthony Campanelli said it. Liam Cohen said it. I think Grant and your Denski had said some favorable things. And what that is is, no, he had a bad year based on everyone's expectations because of what he did the year before. Technically, his year wasn't that terrible. He had 200 yards less receiving than Parker Washington, who everybody's raving about, including

8:16me, right? He had a handful of maybe, I think, right under 15 or 10 or 15 less catches, any plate less games. I just think the impact that we thought he was going to have was so high that we forget. He did not have a terrible, terrible year. While the team was winning 13 games, he was battling injuries, he was in and out, but we do want more. So you look around and you think of the people that are capable, that are physically capable. But I'm talking about whether or not Parker Washington is going to regress or any of that. I don't think any of that's going to happen. But the game changing ability of Brian Thomas, Jr., I believe has to be at the forefront. It doesn't have to happen all the time. But Brian Thomas, Jr., is going to have to make some of those plays that he may look routine his rookie year in order for the Jaguars to take that next step. And that next step is sometimes you got to get a dunk. Sometimes you got to get a layup. Sometimes you got to get an easy basket.

9:16You can't make everything seem like you're going to the dentist and getting teeth pulled. Some things have to come easy. Most of the teams that win successfully, they get those easy six and those easy seven. And I'm not saying they're easy to get in terms of what they have to do to make them happen, but they come really, really quick. They come really, really fast. The game changing plays, it happens for the good teams. And it has to happen for the Jaguars. The Jaguars aren't alone. The Buffalo Bills are the same way. One of the criticisms of the Buffalo Bills, maybe even from some of their own fans and people that watch them closely is, it seems like they have to grind for everything. They don't have that big play. Number one, dude, that could just turn a game upside down like a Jammart chase. And those guys are rare and Justin Jefferson and Tyree Kill, Devon Hane, right down the mountain. And just make a play and all of a sudden they flipped the game. Jackson Smith and Jigba, right? We need a little bit of that.

10:17And I think Brian Thomas, Jr. was doing that on offense while everyone else does their job the way that they're supposed to. And him too, but he is the one that is blessed with the natural ability. And I think this is why the Jaguars did not give up on him. Let's look at the defense and you probably know where I'm already going because while there's a lot of good players on defense, there's one that is super special in a certain way. I'm locked on Jaguars. All right, the day show is brought to you and presented by Game Time. There are more live events than ever we're seeing right now. Games, concerts, comedy shows, festivals, the hard part usually isn't deciding what you want to attend. It's getting the tickets to actually attend the event. Now, well, I'm going to set you free, man, because all you got to do is download that game time app. You got to do it, man, because Game Time is the absolute truth. You got to turn to a man because you get exclusive savings, the opportunities that help you get to the events you want without all the usual hassle.

11:20Mainly, one of my pet peeves is you look at one price and then you get to check out these other places and then it changes. Well, no, not with Game Time. The price that they told you is the price that there's going to be. And then you can see your seats and it's just straight up hassle free. I don't like wasting time and you shouldn't either just go to Game Time. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets to every type of event with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account and use the code locked on for $20 off your first purchase, terms apply again, create an account and redeem code. L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N for $20 off. Download the Game Time app and make sure you do that today. All right, let's keep pushing here as we are talking about game changers. We did offense and my game changer on offense was Brian Thomas Jr. The criteria for this is opportunity, ability, talent and all of the intangibles because

12:20if you don't do the intangibles, you can't play for the Jaguar anyway. But that's never a problem. I think everybody in that building is an intangible guy because that's the way they all intangibly rich, right? At least that's what James Gladstone set out to do. Get a roster full of guys like that. Here's my defensive guy. My defensive guy is also going to be somebody that can do it on offense inside, but the opportunity won't be there because he won't be on offense as much. Unless he gets over there and Travis Hunter gets over there and he starts making a whole bunch of plays, then he may never come off the field. And I want to bring that up real quick because there's this thought with so much discourse. And I think a lot of the discourse around his role is one mainly because no one has ever done it to the extent that the Jaguars and Travis Hunter plan on him trying to do it, which he did last year. It looks a little more fluid this year because he's not just breaking into the NFL and learning new stuff. He's worked on his body and all of those things. He has now had him in the entire off season. He had a whole season of watch last year.

13:21And I want to put this in context when I talk about him because it's, it's, I'm going to give you an example. Not anybody's fault. I remember an episode of, it was either nightcapper club, they shared something they had Dion Sanders on and Ocho and Shannon Sharp were talking to Dion. And this is when Travis was still in college. And he said Travis is probably going number one. And then Dion said who's got the number one pick and they looked down and they said Jacksonville and Dion was kind of laughed and everybody laughed. He said Travis, like he had to have a long talk with Travis Hunter, right? So a year later, that same energy doesn't exist. And I know it was all tongue and cheek. So I'm not making this about coach prime and all of that like everybody might want to make it. But it was all tongue and cheek. But see those jokes while they were funny, they had a little bit of truth to it. And the true part of it is is that Jacksonville was not necessarily a destination place for people who wanted to continue to win because they did not have at that point a history of winning.

14:21And I think that they still don't and we still don't because it's only been one year. All right. So the thought that this is a bad place to be was because of what appeared to be and what I know was organizational dysfunction that led to a bunch of inconsistency for a long time. Move that ahead of year. Travis plays six games and then he sits out and then he watches his team. And I'm not saying watching this if you sit over there on a sideline as a disciplinary tool and watch us win without you. So you learn a lesson. That's not what I'm saying. What I am saying is he watched them and he was probably chomping at the bit to get out there and help them knowing him even with a bad knee, right? He watched them win 13 games. So even in his own mind, whether or not the way he thought, I don't know if he thought the way everybody else thought like that joke may have indicated. But you got to think that at some point that thing started to twist and turn. He was like, no, the proof of concept is I am sitting here watching these guys.

15:22I am in the facility and they are getting this done. His experience in NFL is this. He plays for a 13 win team. He doesn't play for a team. He's only here. They won 13 games and went to the playoffs. So he doesn't know anything from 2018 and 2019. The biggest thing that he knows now is what he saw happen last year. So now this alpha, this alpha, alpha athlete that wants to play knows and trust. And this is what we talk about all the time. Be accountable to your teammates. He knows and trust these guys because he's seen him work. He's been here. He ain't got to go in reputation. He understands what's going on. He trusts the coaches because he saw them win without him. And this goes into him playing both ways. Travis never wants to come off the field. If he does come off the field, he will come off the field trusting his teammates because he saw them win 13 games and he saw him win nine of them without him.

16:22Okay. So now it changes a little bit, but it probably doesn't. I think he can take some of the pressure off of himself if that's possible. And he'll probably end up playing a lot more offense than you think. I honestly believe Travis Hunter might play 75 80 snaps. I don't know how many offense, how many on defense I assume he'll play more on defense. But Travis might not just be a spot player with a small package. A place. I had to make sure we say that correctly. He might not be a player that just has one or two things that he does and you bring him in like a little gimmick. No, I think there might be a point at some point this year where he is really, really used a lot. Travis may be, okay, this is what we're going to do. We're going with Travis. We're going with BT. They're playing up on guys. They're trying to take away the fact that they know Jacobi isn't fast. They know Parker isn't fast. So you know what they're going to do are two and three tight insets aren't hurting them. We're going with pure on adulterated speed.

17:25We're going to put Travis on one side, BT on the other and may go with two running backs, right? And this is what we're going to do. We're going to try to big play him to death. Y'all want to play up? Okay. We're going to put people in the game that can run around you. And this is how Travis Hunter made Etch out of even bigger role on offense once he starts making big plays. But I think his biggest impact will come on defense because tip balls and respiratory, when they get, if teams get towards the red zone, I remember this vividly when Travis Hunter played in college, I would see him literally jump off of his man, peel off and know where the quarterback was throwing the ball and he would get interceptions. I think when you get in those short area situations like that, quarterbacks are going to try this guy and you know what's going to happen? He's going to, he's going to, you're going to see a change of possession. Not only will you see a change of possession, you might see, you might see a change of possession that's temporary because it takes him seven yards to go 80 yards for a touchdown. That's what it meant.

18:25And then you see another change of possession when the Jack Rarsler kick in the ball, I have a feeling that you are going to see this young man get his hands on the ball in two areas this year on offense and defense and end up in the end zone. And I would not be surprised if he did it in the same game. That's just how he is. But you don't have to do these things that I'm talking about all the time. Now, you got to do them in account in big games against big opponents because you know what big games against big opponents do, they think they're good to and they try it. Unlike some other teams that know, oh no, man, we can't go. Sometimes those bad teams do it too because they don't know no better. But what good teams tend to do is, and sometimes you'll notice this, check this out. In the past, the Jack Rars sometimes have played better against really good teams than they have bad teams. Then college happens all the time. You know why? Because bad teams, they do every, and they throw the kitchen sink at you man and they try to jump the game up because they know they can't play you head up.

19:27In the NFL, oh no, they will line up. They say, this is who we are, what you're going to do about it. They're going to see what they got and they believe they're good. When teams like that line up in front of you, they give you an opportunity. They say, beat me. This is why I say those two guys are so important. Brian Thomas Jr. offense, Travis Hunter on defense, and then he may be the second player on offense because if you do that to them, you got the chance of getting done because of the physical ability, the one on one, and it's not like it's just physical talent that doesn't work hard. It's physical talent that does work hard. That is now insulated by an entire system of good quality, structured football that will put them in a position to be nothing more than themselves. That's why I think we really, really, really have to count on both of those guys to make those big plays that the Jack Rars lacked last year. They do that. They could go ahead and win 13 games. Even if they don't catch lightning in the bottle like they did last year, it's possibility

20:32that they could win a whole bunch more games and even match or exceed them. I'm a Marcus Argonne from the Squash Show says it's going to win 15. If they win 15, they got to get big plays from both sides of the ball and both of those guys have to be a partner. But what do they mean when they say the cream rises to the top? I'll tell you, just a second here. I'm locked on Jack Rars. All right, today's show is sponsored and brought to you by Fando. College football fans, it's time to put your knowledge to the test with college football pick them from Fando. Each week you can make 10 free against the spread picks, finish with one of the week's top pick totals and you can win a share of 500,000 dollars in bonus pets. There's no entry free, no wager required. Just make your picks based on your college football knowledge and see how you stack up. The competition doesn't stop there. Make your picks before kick off, follow the live leaderboard throughout Saturday and see if you can out pick names like Will Compton, Taylor LeWine or Josh Payton.

21:38Beat any of those dudes and you unlock a profit boost to use on Fando. All right, here's the thing. I'm going to pick Florida State. I got to. They play SMU on Monday and I'm going to pick Florida State because I think they were real vanilla last week and they're going to show up and be a lot better than they were. This week and they'll probably be the underdog too. So download the Fando app and pick, play college football, pick them for free only on Fando. Visit Fando.com to get your cell started. All right, let's wrap it up here and get down the stretch so we can get across the finish line here talking about game changers on offense, Brian Thomas Jr. on defense. Travis Hunter with a little bit of offense on top of it. This coaching staff talks about the cream rise to the top. They're talking about competition, competition, competition. They respond to questions and even I've asked this question before like how do you get them all to all of these people? I asked Liam Cohen something like that because okay, wait, Parker Washington Letterman

22:42receiving last year, Jacobi Myers got a $20 million contract extension. You want Brian Thomas Jr. to be the number one. You got Britain Strange. He signed to a lot of money, right? You say you're going to play Travis Hunter on offense too. You're going to play two or three runner backs. Then you drafted two tight ends. One of them in the second round and I'm sitting there thinking like okay, how are you going to play? Who are you going to get the ball? Is everybody going to be happy? And this is why when you compete at the highest level, when competition is what it is. When you tell everybody to trust the work, you hear Liam Cohen say this out of his mouth. We want guys to get numbers, but it's team first and that's a paraphrase of the things that I've heard him say. But the other thing he says is this, we challenge him every day to compete and whoever, whoever does it will be the one that will be on the field. Whoever gives them the best chance to play will be on the field. The guys that aren't on the field, what are you going to do to get on the field? What are you going to do to gain our trust? What are you going to do?

23:43The eye and the sky doesn't lie. And when you get out there, you have to perform. I tell people all the time, man, this is almost like choreography. Yeah, you can mess up and practice all day, but when that concert comes, when they turn those lights on, when the stage lights come off, on and the arena lights go off and illuminates and lights up on you, you can't mess up. Because everybody, all 20,000 people that are there are going to leave and say, it's all right, man, but you can't mess up. That's step. He kept losing and stuff. My man Bobby Brown is always doing that. But Bobby does it because he's tired and it's like a bit with new addition, right? If you ever decide on new addition, if you ever see new addition, the thing about Bobby, this is running joke that he's always party hard and get tired. So Bobby, they'll be writing a mill of their steps and Bobby will put his hand on his hip and walk off like my auntie or something when she tired of cooking and just go sit on the speaker and take a drink and everybody will laugh about it, right? Well, people in football don't laugh at stuff like that.

24:44Yeah, to do check himself out of a game because he got hurt and he probably going in up never starting a game again and entering the register because he did that, right? So everyone will remember every mistake that you make. I often talk about offensive tackles and this is why when people say corner, I say offensive tackle too because you can, if an offensive tackle plays 62 snaps and 61 of them, he does everything he's supposed to do. And on snap 62, where they said the beginning middle or the end of the game, he gets, he lets to do go by him and that dude has a nonstop. Un, there's no speed bumps and he absolutely almost pushes the quarterback's shoulder blades through his chest and the ball pops out. That's what you're going to see on sports center. That's what everybody's going to remember. That's what people are going to remember when it's your time to get a contract. They're going to remember all of that stuff. So it is about competition. You have, you got to perform, man. You got to perform. That's why they stressed them out so much in practice.

25:46That's why they say they throw everything at them and that's why they talk about competition. That's why I'm glad they have a whole bunch of people in all of these rooms. Why it receivers, DBs, D line, offensive line. That's the only way this thing rises. It almost sounds cruel. It's like you like a guy but then you want another guy to beat him out, right? It sounds really, really weird like that. It's like if you had a bunch of guys on a boxing gym, you know who the dude is that's going to fight and everybody's sparring them. You want him to actually do well. That's not the way this works with 53 guys in NFL and then another 15 and so guys on the practice squad. You know how this works? This works. No, I want y'all to beat each other's brains. I'm going to throw a stakeout and I want to see which one of y'all are going to go get it because that's how I know who I can trust in the game. Not your contract. Not where you were drafted. I want to be able to know who I can trust. Now granted. You throw that stakeout there in practice and the same guy keeps getting it every day.

26:46You know what that means. That's the guy you can trust in the game but you also know what else it means. The other guy's understanding that you're trusting because he's been whooping them in practice off season, all camp all during the week. They know that dude is doing what he's supposed to do and he's doing at a higher level. So then what does a competitor do? A competitor turns around and says I need to get better because that's how he's burning him. That's how he's yoked. And when you're yoked like that and that's who you are, they ain't got to coach you. They ain't got to get you in shape. They just got to motivate you and try to extract and refine you to the point where they can trust you. And then sometimes the injuries happen. You have a reason. Depth happen. Guys get tired. There are going to be so many opportunities for people to step up and show that they are the ones that deserve it. And then here's what happens. When you win, ain't nobody worried about no numbers. Nobody worried about money. Nobody worried about where you picked. Nobody worried about how many more years you got on the contract.

27:48Nah, I've seen it firsthand. I know what those dudes look and act like when they're winning. I saw it in 2017. When they start losing in 2018, that's when the problems came out. So it may sound cliche, but winning cures everything. And you know what else cures everything? All the curiosity about who's going to get the ball, whoever works hard and whoever earns it. And you can trust it. And they know it's true. If they're the fourth-wire receiver, they know those three guys deserve to be in front of them because they've been there with them every day. And you don't get jealous. You don't worry about what other people say. That's what the cream rises until the top means. And when that rises, guess what else rises with the top? The bottom. When the bottom rises and the top rises, now you're cooking with grease and you got a chance to do something special if you're a Jacksonville Jaguar. I'm looking forward to it. This time next week, we'll be getting ready for the opener on Thursday night. And I know you guys will absolutely be ready.

28:50Are you guys ready for your fantasy football season? You had to draft. It should be this weekend because it's almost going to be too late. So now on video, we'll send you to the first ever 24-7 YouTube channel on the NFL and audio. Check it out. Check out Lockdown Fantasy football with fabs and markers for your second. Listen, and I'm your first listen. We thank you for making us your first listen here on Lockdown Jaguar. We appreciate you. We will see you later. Hey, NFL fans. I'm Brian Peacock and that is Matt Williamson, hosts of the NFL Six Pack Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. NFL Six Pack brings you the latest NFL news and analysis and breaks down all of the weekly action. A six pack of takes daily on the playoff pushed in the 2025 season or if your team's in draft mode, yeah, we'll hit that too. All right here every day on the Lockdown Podcast Network, the NFL Six Pack subscribe on YouTube or everywhere you get your podcasts.