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So let us get this straight: 105 receptions, 1,304 receiving yards and six touchdown catches add up to … a sub-par season?!?
That’s the inconsistent conundrum that was Demaryius Thomas’ 2015 campaign in which the stat line didn’t really reflect the bottom line.
Now, true, Thomas produced as usual for his fantasy-football owners and only four players – Antonio Brown (136-1,834), Julio Jones (136-1,871), DeAndre Hopkins (111-1,571) and Brandon Marshall (109-1,502) – eclipsed his regular-season reception and yardage totals.
But then there were the dropped passes – nine of them, which ranked as the fifth-highest total in the league.
And then there was the corollary 59.3 percent reception rate (105 catches among 177 targets), which ranked 32nd out of the 42 players with at least 100 targets last season.
And, to cap it all off, there was the near-invisible three-game postseason performance in which D.T. managed to snare only seven of 21 targets for 60 yards and no TDs. That not-so-memorable run concluded with a solitary 8-yard catch on six Super Bowl targets.
With or without a measurable contribution from their No. 1 wide receiver, though, the Broncos all still snared Super Bowl rings – making it a lot more memorable than the Big Game two years prior when Thomas set a Super Bowl record with 13 catches for 118 yards and the team’s only TD in a 43-8 blowout loss.
Still, fast forward to a pre-training camp news conference Wednesday, and while his teammates and coaches were being asked about the challenges of repeating, Thomas started off fielding questions about his 2015 struggles.
“It was probably the concentration,” Thomas said. “I really don’t have a reason. It was some of them that were just too easy and I was probably looking up the field too fast. I’m not going to blame it on (that). They should have been catches.
“That’s in the past now, and I look forward to trying to do better.”
And to that end …
“I had too many drops last year and that’s something that I worked on a lot this (offseason),” Thomas added. “I caught a lot more balls. I’m sure it’ll pay off. I look forward to that, and I look forward to getting back to work.”
When he does, though, it’ll be with a group of quarterbacks for the first time since his second season of 2011. Gone are Peyton Manning and Brock Osweiler, who hooked up with Thomas 402 times for 5,787 yards and 41 scores from 2012-15, ranking him second, second and third in the three categories, respectively, during that span.
Enter Mark Sanchez, Trevor Siemian and rookie Paxton Lynch, and the Broncos’ top wideout is now tasked with developing a workable chemistry with the new crop of QBs.
“It’s hard right now,” Thomas admitted. “I was with the same quarterback for the past four seasons. I never got to throw with Trevor last year even though we were on the same team. Now we have two other new faces as well. I threw with Sanchez when he was at USC, but he was a totally different quarterback then. You try to (develop chemistry), but it’s hard, because you have to go with reps with every one of them to see (what) they got.”
On the flip side, the offense is familiar this time around for Thomas, who missed offseason workouts a year ago during negotiations for a long-term contract. In the meantime, new head coach Gary Kubiak and his staff were installing the nuts and bolts of his offensive scheme.
“It didn’t help that I didn’t go to OTAs and minicamp,” Thomas said. “Now I was able to go to OTAs, minicamp and be here for training camp, I know the offense like the back of my hand.
“A couple of guys have not played here before, so it’s nothing that’s thrown at us. It’s something that we’ve went through a whole year and know how it works. We’re looking forward to it.”
