Jacksonville’s dumping Leonard Fournette, and that’s got me very interested in Chris Thompson as a later-round pick. He should catch a ton of balls.
Thompson is more of a third-down type back (rather than a meat-and-potatoes inside runner) but that fits the kind of offense they’ll be running. They’ve got Jay Gruden running things now, and he’s had only one top-15 running game in the last nine years. His preference is to put the ball in the air, and there should be plenty of that this year. Jacksonville is probably the worst team in the league, so they’ll be executing plenty of dumpoff passes in the second halves of games.
Gruden and Thompson, of course, have a history. They worked together in Washington. That played a role in Jacksonville signing him, and I have seen a couple of blurbs go by, indicating Thompson is playing a big role in practices.
Thompson had some issues with injuries in Washington, but when he was healthy, he was pretty productive, with a game that translates nicely to PPR formats.
In the 2017-19 seasons (when playing with Gruden) Thompson in 25 games ran for 539 yards and 2 TDs. That’s modest production (about 22 yards per game) but he caught 105 passes for 1,046 yards and 5 TDs in those games – about 4 catches per week.
Often when looking at these kind of things, I like to look at the last 16 games. That’s a season’s worth of work. For Thompson’s last 16 games with Gruden, he caught 67 passes for 552 yards and 2 TDs (plus 262 rushing yards). If we instead look at the last 16 games in which he was on the field for at least half of their plays, it moves up to 83 catches for 715 yards and a touchdown, with 268 rushing yards.
To me, Thompson makes sense with a late-round pick. He’s not going to win your league for you, but he can be a depth guy that you can plug in for modest production when byes or injuries have you in need of a starter.
For the actual running, I expect it will be some combination of Ryquell Armstead and Devine Ozigbo. Armstead was a fifth-round pick who didn’t do much with his limited opportunities last year. Ozigbo is a 230-pound banger who wasn’t even drafted a year ago (he got cut by the Saints). I don’t find either one of those guys to be particularly compelling as fantasy choices.
Jacksonville in theory could add another back. Devonta Freeman is out there. But I don’t think the team is necessarily looking to get getting. They’re playing the long game, looking to head into 2021 with plenty of cap room and perhaps the No. 1 overall pick (allowing them to select Trevor Lawrence).
Below are the game logs for Thompson’s work with Gruden in Washington. Games where he was on the field for at least half of their offensive plays I’ve got in bold. Stats come from the Pro-Football-Reference website.
| CHRIS THOMPSON & JAY GRUDEN | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Opp | Score | Run | Rec | Yards | TD | Snap% |
| 2014 | at NYG | L 13-24 | 3-12-0 | 3-22-1 | 34 | 1 | 29% |
| 2014 | Phil. | W 27-24 | 0-0-0 | 3-5-0 | 5 | 0 | 18% |
| 2015 | Mia. | L 10-17 | 3-11-0 | 0-0-0 | 11 | 0 | 25% |
| 2015 | St.L. | W 24-10 | 0-0-0 | 1-10-0 | 10 | 0 | 10% |
| 2015 | at NYG | L 21-32 | 2-29-0 | 8-57-1 | 86 | 1 | 50% |
| 2015 | Phil. | W 23-20 | 6-53-0 | 2-24-0 | 77 | 0 | 39% |
| 2015 | at Atl. | L 19-25 | 3-15-0 | 6-33-0 | 48 | 0 | 43% |
| 2015 | at NYJ | L 20-34 | 5-12-0 | 6-26-0 | 38 | 0 | 59% |
| 2015 | at N.E. | L 10-27 | 0-0-0 | 2-21-0 | 21 | 0 | 38% |
| 2015 | N.O. | W 47-14 | 2-54-0 | 1-23-0 | 77 | 0 | 16% |
| 2015 | at Car. | L 16-44 | 4-10-0 | 3-7-0 | 17 | 0 | 56% |
| 2015 | NYG | W 20-14 | 2-7-0 | 1-9-0 | 16 | 0 | 14% |
| 2015 | Dall. | L 16-19 | 1-6-0 | 4-18-0 | 24 | 0 | 26% |
| 2015 | at Phil. | W 38-24 | 0-0-0 | 1-12-1 | 12 | 1 | 12% |
| 2015 | at Dall. | W 34-23 | 7-19-0 | 0-0-0 | 19 | 0 | 28% |
| 2016 | Pitt. | L 16-38 | 4-23-1 | 2-16-0 | 39 | 1 | 67% |
| 2016 | Dall. | L 23-27 | 2-1-0 | 3-57-0 | 58 | 0 | 42% |
| 2016 | at NYG | W 29-27 | 6-23-0 | 1-(-7)-0 | 16 | 0 | 48% |
| 2016 | Clev. | W 31-20 | 3-24-0 | 2-16-1 | 40 | 1 | 32% |
| 2016 | at Balt. | W 16-10 | 2-12-0 | 4-33-0 | 45 | 0 | 32% |
| 2016 | Phil. | W 27-20 | 9-37-0 | 3-29-0 | 66 | 0 | 49% |
| 2016 | at Det. | L 17-20 | 12-73-0 | 7-40-0 | 113 | 0 | 59% |
| 2016 | at Cin. | T 27-27 | 7-14-0 | 5-27-0 | 41 | 0 | 53% |
| 2016 | Min. | W 26-20 | 4-25-0 | 3-11-0 | 36 | 0 | 33% |
| 2016 | G.B. | W 42-24 | 2-10-0 | 1-9-0 | 19 | 0 | 35% |
| 2016 | at Dall. | L 26-31 | 4-17-0 | 5-17-0 | 34 | 0 | 57% |
| 2016 | at Ariz. | L 23-31 | 2-24-0 | 1-21-0 | 45 | 0 | 43% |
| 2016 | at Phil. | W 27-22 | 3-38-1 | 0-0-0 | 38 | 1 | 35% |
| 2016 | Car. | L 15-26 | 2-10-0 | 5-26-0 | 36 | 0 | 55% |
| 2016 | at Chi. | W 41-21 | 3-20-1 | 1-17-1 | 37 | 2 | 33% |
| 2016 | NYG | L 10-19 | 3-5-0 | 6-37-0 | 42 | 0 | 56% |
| 2017 | Phil. | L 17-30 | 3-4-0 | 4-52-1 | 56 | 1 | 48% |
| 2017 | at LAR | W 27-20 | 3-77-2 | 3-29-0 | 106 | 2 | 41% |
| 2017 | Oak. | W 27-10 | 8-38-0 | 6-150-1 | 188 | 1 | 41% |
| 2017 | at K.C. | L 20-29 | 6-23-0 | 1-4-0 | 27 | 0 | 52% |
| 2017 | S.F. | W 26-24 | 16-33-0 | 4-105-0 | 138 | 0 | 61% |
| 2017 | at Phil. | L 24-34 | 7-38-0 | 5-26-1 | 64 | 1 | 58% |
| 2017 | Dall. | L 19-33 | 4-18-0 | 8-76-0 | 94 | 0 | 80% |
| 2017 | at Sea. | W 17-14 | 4-20-0 | 4-11-0 | 31 | 0 | 52% |
| 2017 | Min. | L 30-38 | 9-26-0 | 3-41-0 | 67 | 0 | 60% |
| 2017 | at N.O. | L 31-34 | 4-17-0 | 1-16-1 | 33 | 1 | 26% |
| 2018 | at Ariz. | W 24-6 | 5-65-0 | 6-63-1 | 128 | 1 | 42% |
| 2018 | Ind. | L 9-21 | 4-1-0 | 13-92-0 | 93 | 0 | 68% |
| 2018 | G.B. | W 31-17 | 6-17-0 | 1-0-0 | 17 | 0 | 41% |
| 2018 | at N.O. | L 19-43 | 8-17-0 | 6-45-0 | 62 | 0 | 66% |
| 2018 | at NYG | W 20-13 | 3-13-0 | 2-9-0 | 22 | 0 | 38% |
| 2018 | at Phil. | L 13-28 | 3-3-0 | 3-18-0 | 21 | 0 | 64% |
| 2018 | NYG | L 16-40 | 3-23-0 | 3-15-0 | 38 | 0 | 40% |
| 2018 | at Jac. | W 16-13 | 5-9-0 | 1-4-0 | 13 | 0 | 43% |
| 2018 | at Ten. | L 16-25 | 4-20-0 | 1-8-0 | 28 | 0 | 37% |
| 2018 | Phil. | L 0-24 | 2-10-0 | 5-14-0 | 24 | 0 | 67% |
| 2019 | at Phil. | L 27-32 | 3-10-0 | 7-68-0 | 78 | 0 | 64% |
| 2019 | Dall. | L 21-31 | 2-3-0 | 5-48-0 | 51 | 0 | 46% |
| 2019 | Chi. | L 15-31 | 7-29-0 | 4-79-0 | 108 | 0 | 52% |
| 2019 | at NYG | L 3-24 | 4-4-0 | 4-56-0 | 60 | 0 | 53% |
| 2019 | N.E. | L 7-33 | 4-21-0 | 5-17-0 | 38 | 0 | 55% |
—Ian Allan