Jaguars rookie stock report: Week 4

Through four weeks of the NFL season, the Jacksonville Jaguars have the unfortunate honor of being the only remaining winless team in the league after their 24-20 loss in Houston.

Despite leading for nearly the entire game, winning the turnover battle, averaging over six yards per rush, and having half the amount of penalties as the Texans the Jaguars still found a way to fall short of a victory as hope for the season dwindles to microscopic levels heading into Week 5.

The only saving grace to this disaster of a start is the play of the team’s 2024 first-round pick, Brian Thomas Jr. The rookie wide receiver continued to flash elite potential on Sunday as he turned in his best performance of his rookie campaign on Sunday, but how is the rest of the rookie class playing?

Here are three rookies trending up, and two trending down after Week 4.

Stock Trending Up

Brian Thomas Jr.

The Jaguars passing attack has struggled all season long and if it weren’t for Brian Thomas Jr. it would somehow be even worse. The rookie has been the Jaguars’ most impactful receiver this season and that continued on Sunday as he hauled in six of his nine targets for 86 yards and a touchdown. Those numbers are great as is but BTJ had a chance to have a monster outing had Trevor Lawrence not missed a couple of throws to the rookie.

The hope is that he and Lawrence are still working through their rhythm together because if they can connect on those big plays more consistently, Brian Thomas Jr. should shatter every rookie receiving record the Jaguars have by season's end.

Maason Smith

Maason Smith may not be posting much in the stat column, but he’s still impacting plays when he’s on the field. In 33 snaps on Sunday, Smith was able to get into the backfield a few times and was credited with a pressure as well. Despite the lack of box score numbers, the rookie finished the game with the second-highest PFF grade behind Joshua Hines-Allen.

Considering the team’s struggles at getting to opposing quarterbacks this season (26th in sacks), Smith should see increased snaps as the season progresses. This is the perfect time to buy low on Maason Smith stock.

Cam Little

After making both of his kicks on Sunday, including a 52-yarder, Cam Little is now 6 of 7 on field goal attempts this season with his lone miss coming against the Browns where he doinked one off the upright in the rain. His reliability has been a breath of fresh air for an organization that has had plenty of kicking woes over the last few years.

Little’s seven attempts, however, rank at the bottom of the league to this point. Considering the Jags' incompetence in the red zone and 4th and short situations, maybe they should rely on the kid a little more going forward. Just a thought.

Stock Trending Down

Jarrian Jones

The rookie corner out of Florida State has been very up and down during his rookie campaign to this point, which is to be expected. However, Jones is currently trending down after a rough performance against the Texans on Sunday.

The rook was manning starting duties at nickel for the second week in a row with Darnell Savage still out and it just wasn’t his day. Jones looked a step late on a handful of plays in his area and it was evident that Jones was nursing that shoulder injury he sustained in the Bills game a week earlier. He was slow to get up off the ground several times and looked as though he was laboring through injury throughout.

While his toughness is admirable for a team that is decimated by injuries in the secondary, his play has to be better if he’s going to play significant snaps.

De’Antre Prince

Considering how thin the team is at corner right now, it is a pretty significant indictment of where De’Antre Prince is as a player that he only notched one snap on defense on Sunday. To put that into perspective, Christian Braswell was just elevated from the practice squad a few days prior and he tallied seven snaps.

Prince’s snap count has now decreased in three consecutive weeks which is not a great sign of things to come for the fifth-round pick out of Ole Miss.

Inactive/Reserve

Javon Foster

Jordan Jefferson

Keilan Robinson

Myles Cole