When Jay Gruden was added to the Jacksonville Jaguars’ staff as offensive coordinator, he probably had several veterans in mind that he wanted to reunite with in Northeastern Florida. One of those, of course, was his former tight end from Cincinnati in Tyler Eifert and the other was one of the Jags’ most recent addition in running back Chris Thompson.
While with the Washington Redskins the two built a great bond as Gruden molded Thompson from being a practice squad player to a bonafide passing threat for the team. Gruden’s faith in Thompson is something the veteran hasn’t forgotten until this day and was one of the reasons he joined the Jags alongside his familiarity with the scheme.
“He is one of the biggest reasons I was able to have the success that I had in Washington and to be able to stick around there,” Thompson told the media this week. “The first year he got there, I was on the practice squad. I ended up being cut and put on the practice squad, but he talked to me afterwards for a while, after the last preseason game and told me what the situation was.
Throughout this whole process and all my time there in Washington, he believed in me. He gave me every single opportunity that he possibly could. Me coming here to Jacksonville with him being one of, I guess, two guys — with [Tyler] Eifert also — being familiar with his offense.”
When Gruden came into the picture and groomed Thompson, his career trended upwards, and from 2015-17, there was a span of year-to-year improvement from him as he registered 240, 349, and 510 receiving yards, respectively. Afterward, he was also able to accumulate 646 receiving yards during the following two years in Washington and ended his time there with 1,772 career receiving yards.
Gruden, who has a good track record with young quarterbacks, seemingly has been working hard to add veterans familiar with the system around Minshew. That’s something the young quarterback won’t complain about as he auditions to be the team’s franchise quarterback in 2020.
Thompson, who is a native of nearby Greenville, FL., was also asked about returning to his home state to play football again and his excitement simply couldn’t be held in.
“Yes, it is big time,” he said. “That is one thing that I am super excited about, just to be back in my home state and be a lot closer to what I would say is my fanbase that has been there for years, even back to people that watched me play in high school. I am super excited about that, and then my family is an hour-and-a-half away now, so they will be able to come and watch me play and be able to spend some more time with me than they have been able to the past seven years.”
It’s a rarity for players to get to play so close to their hometown and Thompson clearly is ready to prance on the opportunity. Hopefully, it will motivate him in such a way that he puts together his best season as the Jags could use all of the offensive contributions they can get.