Bryan Thomas didn’t need to be told he had a poor season last year.
He didn’t need the coaches, media or fans to point out his lack of production.
He, too, insisted after yesterday’s Organized Team Activities (OTA) practice that he didn’t need the Jets’ signing of Calvin Pace or drafting of Vernon Gholston to know he’s on the clock in 2008.
All Thomas, the team’s outside linebacker, had to do was look at the tapes of his practices to see why he was perhaps the most invisible, biggest disappointment on the team in 2007.
In perhaps his most candid, revealing interview as a pro, Thomas said he had better return to the form he displayed in 2006, when he had 8½ sacks and 77 tackles and was a force in the pass rush, or “my (butt) will be out of here.”
“I feel like I slacked off,” said Thomas, who had just 2½ sacks and 47 tackles last year and was nonexistent in the pass rush. “Going into the first year of this defense, I felt pretty good. Last year, I felt like I slacked off a lot. There were a lot of things I didn’t do that I was supposed to do as far as the pass-rush, the running game . . .
“Maybe I got too complacent,” Thomas said. “In this league you can’t do that. You’ve got to stay on your toes all the time . . . and now (I’ve) got competition here, so I definitely can’t do it now. You have to work hard every day. If I don’t, I’ll have my (butt) on the sideline watching it with you all (reporters), and I don’t want that to happen.”
Thomas said he didn’t take the free agent signing of Pace for $42 million over six years ($22 million guaranteed) or the drafting of Gholston in the first round “as a slap in the face,” though they both play his position.
“I just look at it as competition,” he said. “My job is to go out there and not let anyone else outwork me. Yeah, I feel like my numbers slacked off. . . . My practice habits weren’t good last year and those things carried over to Sundays.”
Thomas said the five-year, $25 million contract he received after the 2006 career season did not affect his play in 2007.
“Money has nothing to do with anything,” he said. “I started playing for the love of the game and that’s what it is now.”
Thomas said he believes it’s all about practice. Position coaches began telling him he was not doing the same things last year as he did the previous year.
“The position coaches are going to let you know your practice habits are off,” he said.