Why are newbies impacting the game more than ever?

In recent seasons, rookie wide receivers have had a lot of success. Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator Press Taylor believes this is due in part to the National Football League’s progress.

There is no denying that the league has started to move towards more of a transit league.

“I think the game is obviously moving toward more of a passing league,” Taylor said. “I think that’s true. The average number of yards per quarterback and things like that is such that now everyone throws for over 4,000 yards every season, whereas back in the day that wasn’t so common. I think part of it is just the way these kids are growing up now.”

Taylor noted that most experienced players entering the league have now grown up with a different way of preparing to climb the rankings. Skills training has helped players develop much faster and at a much younger age, shortening their learning curve upon entering the league.

“I mean, these kids have always grown up playing 7-on-7,” Taylor said. “So you’ve seen all this coverage. They’ve seen all of these route concepts where it doesn’t surprise or overwhelm them as much early in their career. But at the same time, I think it’s an honor for the kids that come out.”

Taylor praised Thomas for his flexibility to help the team in a variety of ways, even when he’s not the main target of a play. Thomas’ flexibility was on display in the team’s first win of the season against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.

“They can handle a lot. Brian (WR Brian Thomas Jr.), you would never know it, but Brian plays multiple positions for us throughout the game. He and Gabe (WR Gabe Davis) and Christian (WR Christian Kirk) are constantly changing their identities in the group.

“And this is something that no one would ever notice, but it gives us so much flexibility as a coaching staff to be able to scale down the play calling a little bit because we can just manage it with the personnel grouping. But that is thanks to our boys. You can’t always do that to everyone. It confuses people. It slows down their processing.”

“With Brian, he hasn’t missed a beat in that regard. He’s the Z in this game, he’s the X playing, and in some he might be playing the F for us. So this is just a credit to him. But I think a lot of these kids have just thrown the ball a lot more and implemented a lot more concepts over the course of the summer, obviously into their college and high school careers.”

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