105 catches for 1,304 yards and six touchdowns, what a disappointing season.
Wait, what?
Everyone can agree that the stats listed above are those of a very solid season from an NFL receiver and everyone, including the man whose season that is, Demaryius Thomas, can agree that it felt largely disappointing.
“The worst, for sure, in my past four years,” the Broncos star receiver said Wednesday.
Between the new contract the season was being played on (five years, $70 million) and a litany of dropped passes, the solid season felt like it could have been more.
“I had a lot of drops where I could have made plays,” Thomas told. “I could have had a totally different year because of that. I’d say it was probably the worst I had in my past four.”
So what was the deal with all those drops?
“I don’t know. Probably thinking too much,” he said. “I have no idea. I wasn’t looking the ball in. Trying to run too fast. It was just simple things where I should’ve made plays.”
Thomas is as disappointed as anyone was in his season, personally, but it’s also easy for him to keep everything in perspective.
“I don’t let it bother me much because the main goal is to win the Super Bowl, and we did that,” he said with a smile. “Everybody is going to have their say about what I did and what I didn’t do. But at the end of the day, we still won. I know I’ve got some improvement to do.”
And Thomas believes that improvement will come easily.
“It’s easy to go out and catch the ball,” he said simply. “That’s my job, and I should be able to go out and do that.”
The three-time Pro-Bowler had a lot on his plate last year, he missed the Broncos offseason program as part of a holdout that led to that big contract and he also had on his mind the situation with his mother, who was finally released from prison in the middle of the season after serving a 15-year sentence.
Surely, that was great news for Thomas and his family but a place for his mind to be other than on the field nonetheless.
Now, it’s all football.
“That’s it. I don’t have to worry about my mom. She’s good,” he explained. “Contract is over with. I’m here now trying to learn what I need to learn and not rushing it [like] when I came the first time. It’s all football.”
Thomas had a different focus in his eyes when he took to the podium on Wednesday, focused, determined. So, if 105 for 1,304 and six was a disappointment, the rest of the league has now been put on notice for what a clear-minded Thomas can put together this year.
