April 2, 2026, 12:19 p.m. ET

The trade speculation around Jacksonville Jaguars’ wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr. just won’t go away.

The Athletic’s Mike Sando spoke with NFL execs about the Jaguars offseason, one of whom brought up the idea of Jacksonville moving Thomas Jr. during this year’s NFL draft.

“The Brian Thomas situation is interesting,” another exec said to Sando. “It’s smart to hold onto him. He is too young to give up on that early. I could see him being moved on draft day, if people’s favorite receivers get picked.”

Dating back to last year’s trade deadline, Liam Coen and James Gladstone have been adamant that they don’t intend to trade Thomas Jr. Gladstone again addressed those rumors recently.

“No, we haven’t,” Gladstone said when asked if the Jaguars received a trade offer for Brian Thomas Jr., “and there hasn’t been a ton of dialogue around that front. Teams check in simply because it seems like there’s — I know the word reputable came up earlier — I don’t think there’s been any reputable statement (in regards to the Jaguars attempting to trade Thomas Jr.). We don’t have any real action on any of those fronts.”

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In Year 1 under Coen, Thomas Jr.’s production dipped quite a bit, with him totaling just 728 receiving yards after nearly hitting the 1,300-yard mark as a rookie. Coen has also acknowledged that his system isn’t one that requires a true WR1, with the ball being spread around based on the week-to-week matchups.

However, trading Thomas Jr. at this point still doesn’t make much sense. As we’ve discussed on numerous occasions, with Thomas Jr. only in Year 3 of his rookie deal, his cost, coupled with his potential, is a tremendous value to the Jaguars.

Then, going beyond the production that Thomas Jr. can bring to this offense, when he was sidelined last season with an ankle injury, his presence within the offense was very much missed. With his ability to stretch the field, that creates better spacing and opportunities for others to exploit. When Thomas Jr. was sidelined, this element was missing, and the Jaguars felt the effects of that.

Rather than looking back at what didn’t go right for Thomas Jr. during the 2025 season, Coen sees those corrections as an opportunity to provide a jumping-off point for the wideout going into the 2026 season.

“This is a great opportunity for us to look at it with BTJ this offseason,” Coen said, via Ryan O’Halloran. “These are the true areas where we can improve, let’s go attack it with relentless pursuit and not worry about the results and what happened last year.”