Athletic versatility: Oluokun, Thomas Jr. among multi-sport marvels on Jacksonville Jaguars

The debate over whether NBA players could excel in the NFL or vice versa has become a hot topic.

Austin Rivers, formerly with the Minnesota Timberwolves, recently sparked discussion by claiming on the Pat McAfee Show that he "could take 30 players and throw them in the NFL. You cannot take 30 NFL players and put them in the NBA." The assertion has led to widespread discourse.

More intriguing than the question of cross-league play is the phenomenon of dual-sport athletes who excel in the NFL and other leagues. These athletes bring unparalleled versatility and a diverse skill set that often translates into superior performance on the football field.

From Kyler Murray to Bo Jackson to Jim Thrope to Jackie Robinson, multi-sport athletes have transcended professional and collegiate athletics, demonstrating exceptional versatility and elevating the level of play throughout sports.

Jaguars' Foye Oluokun is a multi-sport prototype

Consider Jaguars outside linebacker Travon Walker, whose high school basketball highlights showcase his made-in-a-lab athleticism and size at 6-feet 5-inches and 272 pounds, making him a natural fit.

Then there's Jaguars linebacker Foye Oluokun, standing at 6-feet 2-inches and 230 pounds, known for his athletic prowess, as evidenced by his relative athletic score (RAS). More impressive, however, is his multi-sport background. Oluokun excelled in soccer, football, basketball and baseball from a young age, though he doesn't claim to be a big-time baseball player.

"My dad, being from Nigeria, loves soccer. I remember being on the soccer field as soon as I can remember playing sports, that was probably my first sport," Oluokun told the Times-Union via a phone interview this month, referring to his father, Steve Oluokun. Oluokun gives credit, in part, for his love of sports today. "I was traveling around the whole country playing [soccer]."

In the past, Oluokun has explained that the key to marking players in soccer is to follow the ball, a skill that translates to football.

"I think every sport [is] gonna work something different, work different parts. They're gonna end up making you a better overall athlete, [a] more coordinated athlete," Oluokun said, adding that playing multiple sports at a high level gives the body more familiarity with being in awkward positions.

Oluokun didn't do anything half-baked, either.

When it came to excelling at sports, he said that if you're invested in something and the team is invested in you, you never want to be bad at it.

"It's all about being the best in whatever you put your time into," he said. "I was always practicing on my own [for basketball], my dad would just take me to an open field, lay some cones down sometimes, dribble around trees during soccer. We had a field with some old soccer nets, we were playing on that all the time. [The] basketball hoop was outside, we had a little baseball Hit-A-Way thing at home," Oluokun explained.

"Sometimes, we'd go to the golf range, [I] learned I have a pretty good golf swing just because we used to go to the driving range all the time. And with those extra golf balls, I would toss those up in the air and hit them with my baseball bat, focusing on hitting the smaller target."

Oluokun's drive is admirable. His competitiveness is infectious and evident both on the field and in interviews. He credits some of this to competing with his older brother, Fade. "I think that kind of made us unclose, but now we're very grateful for it," Oluokun said. "But, really, it's always self-competitiveness. I think that's from my parents always telling us that we could be better, no matter how good we are.

"Even at school, let's say you get a 95 [percent] on a test, [shoot], why didn't you get a 100?"

Oluokun exited his high school sports career unranked. He noted that playing multiple sports, he was never the player to know for just one in particular.

"But I'll always come in and see who was highly ranked or whatever and we'd end up beating them. So, I kind of had that chip on my shoulder, but also realizing that everybody who you play against who has that name, or whatever, has that accolades or whatever, they're beatable no matter what. As long as we're playing the game, there's a way we can win it," said Oluokun, who says that same mentality applies today as he continues his NFL career.

The multi-sport advantage: Oluokun on how diverse athletic skills elevate performance

Oluokun didn't start playing football until middle school when his basketball coach started a team.

Before, and after, Oluokun excelled in basketball at John Burroughs School in St. Louis. He earned All-Conference status in the Metro League on multiple occasions and was the Metro League Player of the Year in 2013 as a shooting guard. At one point, Oluokun was averaging a team-best 17.3 points, 10.0 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 2.7 steals per game. That's with Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliot on the same team.

Once Oluokun took to the football field, his aspirations became more clear. There are 11 starters on defense and just five for basketball. Plus, Oluokun at 6-feet, 2-inches would have had to be clear and away better than most at his position to make it to the NBA.

Though making it big in sports wasn't necessarily the goal for the Jaguars linebacker, the cards fell together after he went to Yale, excelling at multiple positions before finding a home as a full-time linebacker in the pros.

Part of that, Oluokun said, was his background in other sports.

"I think, generally, it helped me being a football player today just being a smoother athlete." He added: "You can jump, you run, you cut and all of that in all the other sports, but just being coordinate, putting your feet in the right spot, adjusting to the ball in the air. It's all other sports that teach you these movements."

Oluokun said that once you hone in on one sport later on, you can move more naturally having focused in on a particular movement for another sport. He says it's the case of being "naturally good" at a particular movement or skill after building it up through the years of playing sports in general.

"Some kids, they focus in on one [sport] their whole life, they can only do one movement, so they're a one-trick pony. I feel like they're kind of selling themselves short," he said.

"Now, it might get you ranked and stuff earlier, but a lot of times you see kids come up late, like 'Oh, how did that kid go through unranked,' but [shoot] he just started focusing on that, but he had the background of different types of movements, different types of things he could do," Oluokun explained. "Now, he's just excelling at one thing later, but now his body's already ready to surpass those guys who have kind of plateaued earlier in their career."

Basketball taught Oluokun plenty. He said that from a competitive standpoint, the two sports are similar. "There's always a way to win, no matter who you're going against, no matter the team you're going against. Nothing's set in stone, it's all on paper. You win the game in a rep, winning a rep. So, the person is the person but there's a way I can win," he explained.

On being a smoother athlete, Oluokun said that he credits basketball for that. "Being composed out there. You can't get too high because if you're too high in basketball, like too [clumsy], you can't dribble [and] you're gonna have turnovers and stuff. You got to be composed and calm, but also have some confidence in yourself to pull off moves and make the pass or tough shot. You gotta have confidence in yourself," he said.

"That's what the basketball court teaches."

Brian Thomas Jr. brings basketball-honed athleticism to Jaguars

In April, the Jaguars selected receiver Brian Thomas Jr. out of LSU in the first round. The receiver brings a lot to the table: size, speed, athleticism, hands, catch radius and more. He was one of the best receivers in college football last year and was rewarded for it.

At 6-feet, 4-inches, 209 pounds, he could have played basketball instead.

Thomas, who starred as a small Forward for Walker High School in Walker, Louisiana, received offers, including one from Texas A&M after his freshman season when he helped fuel a comeback championship victory with 20 points and eight rebounds. Thomas surpassed 1,000 career points halfway through his sophomore season and was named All-State in basketball as a junior.

Thomas did not play organized basketball as a senior, instead diverting his focus to football and track. Ultimately, Thomas decided, that football was where his true passion lay.

"It was pretty easy for me, just knowing football was my first love," Thomas told the Times-Union just after his first rookie minicamp practice, noting that former LSU head coach Ed Oregon's situation did make things a bit murky for a little. "But, deep down in my heart, if you know football is what you want to do... my dad always said to go with what your heart says, so if you know you want to do that, you got to do that, to stick to that."

After two years in a backup role, Thoams started 12 games for LSU in 2023, catching 68 passes for 1,177 yards and 17 touchdowns. He was drafted 23rd overall. The decision was sound, it seems.

Still, Thomas credits basketball and track as two sports that have helped him forge his football career.

"Practicing dribble moves and stuff, it's almost like working releases [off the line of scrimmage in football], your footwork at the line, doing a crossover and just being able to create separate one-on-one. Somebody guarding you, somebody being in front of you. Going up and high-pointing and catching, it's like going up to get a rebound," Thomas explained. "Little things like that correlate over to football."

He credits track, in part, for his speed. Thomas was one of the fastest players at this year's NFL Scouting Combine, posting the second-best run with a 4.33 40-yard dash. His "flying 20," which measures the time of the player's final 20 yards, was the fastest among players at the combine with a time of 1.78 seconds.

"Conditioning. It helped me with my top-end speed, helped me get faster, staying in shape. Track helped me get as fast as I am today," said Thomas. "I learned how to run and how to relax while running. So, I feel like you're straining, you're losing speed, if you're tensed up, you can't get your full maximum effort."

His head coach is all in, too.

Speaking at Thomas' introductory press conference, Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said he likes players who have played multiple sports growing up because it makes them more well-rounded athletes.

"Different skill sets, but at the same time, I think it benefits the player. It just gives them that athleticism you’re looking for. I’m all for guys that play multiple sports, whether it’s big guys that wrestle, or things of that nature. He’s not a wrestler, but a duel-sport guy or a track guy," Pederson said, referencing Thomas. "It’s just a different skillset that turns them into really good athletes.”

Jaguars assistant general manager Ethan Waugh provided his thoughts from a scouting perspective. He says, the team looks at track times first, and high school basketball if they've played it.

"When you talk to Brian [Thomas Jr.] and who offered him in playing basketball, that should show you what kind of athlete he is. So that is important," Waugh said last week. "We try and follow-up how it translates to the NFL, I think that's different in terms of the sport, but I think the big thing is that kids that like to go out and compete and play sports, have fun, and be with teammates and be with teammates of different takes. Track is different than football. So, I think that's all part of building a well-rounded person and player.”

Thomas' athleticism is unmatched by a large majority of players headed into the NFL. He scored a Relative Athletic Score (RAS) of 9.84 at the Combine, which ranks 57th out of 3,402 receivers from 1987 to 2024.

Perhaps he could play in the NBA someday.

Demetrius Harvey is the Jacksonville Jaguars reporter for the Florida Times-Union. You can follow him on X,  formerly known as Twitter, at @Demetrius82.

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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jaguars Oluokun, Thomas Jr. among those with multi-sport versatility