Landry: The best is yet to come for Jameer Thurman

Don Landry

CFL.ca

@CFLLandry

Jameer Thurman was flying around the field last Saturday night, making tackles, making plays and certainly making his presence felt as the middle linebacker for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

He was so dominant that when he collected a key, late-game sack, pushing the Ottawa REDBLACKS back ten yards to their own 47-yard-line and forcing a punt, TSN play-by-play man Marshall Ferguson exclaimed “Who else? Thurman!”

The 28-year-old native of Chicago finished the night with nine tackles and two sacks in a dominating performance against Ottawa, an essential part of a win that the desperate Ticats needed badly.

Here’s the thing, though. As dominant as Thurman was in that game, as fluid and confident and fast as he looked, and as tempting as it might be to conclude that he has quickly and thoroughly found his comfort zone in a new defence, he has not. Not yet.

“I’m still new here and I haven’t really mastered the playbook,” said Thurman this week, after emerging from a post-practice meeting, the Ticats preparing for Thursday night’s game in Edmonton. “I have to make sure I know my job, fully, before I can take that next step.”

If Jameer Thurman, middle linebacker, is still a work in progress in black and gold, just imagine how good the finished product will be.

That comes when the fifth-year veteran has the luxury of really, really knowing and feeling the schemes that defensive coordinator Mark Washington has in place for the Ticats defensive unit. When the freedom to really let loose in a game comes. Even without that feeling, right now, Thurman sits fifth in the CFL in defensive plays with 29, including 26 defensive tackles, those two sacks he collected against Ottawa, and a forced fumble as well.

He’s a league-leader despite being a guy who, admittedly, has yet to find his groove in a new system.

“It’s coming along pretty well now, but it definitely was tough to start off,” said Thurman, referring to what he felt was a personal struggle at training camp. He’d had a newness to overcome, one that he felt slowed him down even more than what he is experiencing now.

In coming over to Hamilton after four seasons as a Calgary Stampeder, signing with the Ticats as a free agent last February, Thurman was leaving behind what he is currently searching for in Steeltown. In Calgary he was playing in schemes he was comfortable with, using familiar terminology. It showed.

In 2022, he made 73 tackles, and pulled in three interceptions while forcing two fumbles in fifteen games for the Stamps. And that came in a season where he’d made the switch from weak side linebacker to middle linebacker after playing the outside for most of football life.

In that, you could say, Thurman has had two straight seasons in which to climb up a learning curve.

“Everywhere I’ve been I’ve been learning and improving,” the six-foot, 227-pounder said. “Everywhere I’ve been, most of the linebackers that I’ve played with and some of my coaches that I’ve had, they’ve always told me little different things that I’ve tried to implement into my game.”

“I’m trying to be the most well-rounded linebacker there is.”

Thurman enjoyed his time in Calgary, and the team increasingly put its faith in him as the seasons accrued. At first primarily a special-teamer (he was named Calgary’s Most Outstanding Special Teams Player in 2018), Thurman began meaning more and more to the Stampeders, first on the outside and then in the interior of the linebacking corps.

“I love WILL (weak side) because most teams always want their their best receivers over there in the boundary and you see a lot of action,” said Thurman. “You’ve got to be on top of your game every single week. But at the same time, at MIKE (middle) you can have an effect on that stuff too.”

When the Ticats knew they were going to need a change at the position – with Jovan Santos-Knox agreeing to terms with Ottawa – they targeted Thurman as the man they wanted and got him early, news of his agreement with the ‘Cats leaking out during the CFL’s free agency negotiation window, which precedes the day that contracts for players with new teams can actually be officially finalized.

Thurman was under-appreciated, I think, by CFL watchers, league-wide, while he was in Calgary. If his numbers weren’t quite enough to earn him the universal praise he is due, that might be about to change as he adapts to a defence that, recently, has made its middle linebacker even more of a focal point.

“If you look at the history of the Hamilton defence, with coach Washington – and before – they’ve always had an All-Star linebacker every single year,” said Thurman before adding: “I’m looking forward to continuing that streak.”

Santos-Knox was an East Division All-Star last season, finishing third in the CFL with a total of 113 defensive plays, 105 of them tackles. If Washington and the Ticats continue to make the middle linebacker an active and integral cog in their schemes once again, Thurman might be in for a big, big year. Maybe he’ll even be named an All-Star for the first time.

“There’s a lot of things that pretty much do run through me,” said Thurman, referring to the defensive designs of the Ticats. “So I’m
excited.”

“Most people say ‘he leads the league in tackles. He must be a great linebacker’ and all that stuff. But I don’t want to be known as (just) that guy. I want to be known as a linebacker who has tackles, forced fumbles, sacks, interceptions, and all that.”

There’s just one thing holding Thurman back, even if it doesn’t look like he’s being held back at all.

“I’m not as fast as I want to be on the field right now,” he said, again referring to his efforts at mastering the Hamilton defensive playbook. Then, he adds a teaser.

“But it’s coming.”

Funny, it looked like it was already here.

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