Julius Thomas getting backlash for lack of blocking abilities

The Jacksonville Jaguars signed Julius Thomas to a massive contract in 2015, but apparently didn’t know what kind of player he was…

The old saying ‘buyer beware’ when it comes to NFL free agents doesn’t seem to apply if you simply have enough money to cover up your bad mistakes. Some teams have to learn the hard way, but other teams don’t even take the blame for their bad free agency moves.

The Jacksonville Jaguars are apparently one such team, as they have just apparently come to terms with the fact that former big money free agent acquisition Julius Thomas is not a good blocker.

Julius Thomas didn't block, and the Jaguars had a problem with that https://t.co/E3R5MwkMRX
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) February 26, 2017

Here’s the original report from the Florida Times Union:

"“His blocking was non-existent,” the source said. “If he was on the field, he was the second tight end and that meant a receiver came off the field and the team speed went down. And if he was on the field with Robinson, Hurns and Lee, it was a clear giveaway to defenses that it was a pass or a run away from him because he couldn’t be at the point of attack.”"

This is no surprise to many Denver Broncos fans, who took to Twitter on Sunday morning to have a good laugh at these new ‘reports’ that have surfaced about Thomas. As if the Jaguars didn’t know Thomas was a poor blocker prior to signing him.

Thomas is a former college basketball player who has made his mark in the NFL doing one thing, and one thing only: catching touchdown passes. He’s never been a blocker, nor did he ever create the illusion that he would become a blocker. He’s a mismatch in the passing game, not a force to be reckoned with in the running game.

If the Jacksonville Jaguars didn’t know that, it’s on them, and Thomas shouldn’t be receiving more unnecessary public backlash. He did the right thing in the situation he was given. He played extremely well for two years in Denver, and cashed in on the open market.

The lack of homework done by Jacksonville isn’t the fault of Thomas, who was recently traded to the Miami Dolphins for a seventh round pick. That’s an insulting value for a player that has the capabilities of Thomas in the passing game, but it’s an understandable value when you consider the fact that Thomas just hasn’t been able to stay healthy. He also has not been the same player he was in Denver when healthy, which is another reason the Jaguars unloaded him.

Go figure — you take away Peyton Manning and an offense that actually suited Thomas’ strengths, and he becomes expendable.

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This is a pattern we have seen and will continue to see across the league. To that point, the Houston Texans made an horrific mistake last offseason when they signed quarterback Brock Osweiler immediately after free agency opened, leaving the Denver Broncos with a hole at quarterback but perhaps creating an even worse situation of their own.

The Texans paid Osweiler an obscene amount of money for someone who has very little tape, especially when the tape he actually does have out there is not all that great.

The Texans bought into Osweiler fully, and gave him a contract worth $72 million in total money. That decision was made without a single face-to-face meeting between the team and the player. The Texans never spoke with Osweiler in person before signing him. They didn’t have him meet with the coaches or front office.

They simply threw money at him, hoping it would all work out.

That’s the pattern NFL teams are falling into, and it’s a dangerous pattern. Yes, players should get their money while they can, but teams should start making more wise investments. There’s a reason the worst teams in the league are generally the same group of teams. They don’t know what to do other than throw money at the big name free agents, and it’s costing them on the field.

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