Chase Thomas UDFA [MERGED] (2 Viewers)

[Lucketty]

For those who say he is Scott Shanle (and again, that would be a useful thing from a UDFA), don't base your beliefs on scouting reports. Watch the guy play. He's constantly around the ball, making plays. Despite his lack of great athleticism, he consistently finds his way into the backfield as a pass rusher using a combination of relentlessness, a couple of well-developed pass rush moves, and really violent hand usage combined with an understanding of how to use the short-area quickness he has after gaining an advantage. He wins quickly off the snap, and he wins a lot. His go-to move is using an outside set followed by a rapid club and rip inside... he ends up inside of the tackle with a clear path to the quarterback within a half-second of the snap on a high percentage of his pass rushing attempts. Shanle was a guy who held onto his position by ostensibly "doing the little things right", but he rarely made plays; you couldn't watch Stanford over the past four years without Thomas popping out to you. His productivity is remarkable and consistent. He had 7.5 sacks and 14.5 TFL as a senior, 8.5 sacks and 17.5 TFL as a junior, and 7.5 sacks and 11.5 TFL as a sophomore, with 2 INT and 9 FF over his college career. Keep in mind that he only rushes on 2/3-3/4 of passing attempts. Against the same competition and the same time-frame, Dion Jordan posted 5.0 and 13.5, 7.5 and 13, and 2 and 5.5 respectively, with 4 career forced fumbles and 0 INT. These guys are from different planets athletically, this is just to show that Thomas understands how to rush the passer.

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Where he really shines is as a run defender. He does an amazing job of stack-and-shed, knowing where he needs to direct the runner, and containing the edge. This is the type of play that we need on our defense; yeah, we need guys who can shoot in the backfield and make plays, but a big part of the problem over the last few years has been with run fits, with linebackers getting completely washed out, losing position, or not understanding where their help is. While not as sexy as adding an elite edge rusher, adding a guy who understands the responsibilities of an OLB in the 3-4 in the run game is going to be a need for this team, and Thomas might be the best 3-4 OLB in this draft class that I've seen at this particular skill. We have a guy who shows natural pass rush ability and has been very productive on a per snap basis in Junior Galette. We have a guy in Martez Wilson who is off-the-charts athletically and, in an incredibly minimal role, has flashed pass rush skills. Victor Butler was also largely a situational rusher for the Cowboys, although I can't speak to what his skills in the run game were. But it's unclear if any of these edge rusher prospects will bring any plus traits to the running game, which creates a niche for a guy like Thomas.

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This isn't to say there aren't real concerns about his ability to project to the pros. He's an undrafted free agent for a reason, although I'd argue that they aren't good reasons to not take a mid-round flier on the guy. His workout numbers are marginal for the NFL... that's not to say that there aren't lots of linebackers in the NFL who ran in a similar range, but it's not a plus to project a slightly undersized LB with really short arms and marginal speed. If you watch the above clips, you will see a guy who is living in the backfield, but does not have the closing speed or athleticism to break down and finish the play when faced with quarterbacks much more athletic than him. If colleges kept hurry statistics, he'd probably have 5 to 6 hurries for every sack in the above cutups. At the college level, he did a very nice job in coverage and looks very comfortable in zone as well as in man matchups, but I anticipate that he will struggle when matched up in man coverage on backs or TEs who outclass him athletically, and he will not be able to take deep zone drops. Which places him in the company of 9/10 3-4 OLBs, but it is a limitation nonetheless.

There's a role for guys like this on your team, and even possibly in your starting lineup. As the NFP article on Thomas states, "While every team that runs a 34 scheme would like to find an impact edge rusher like James Harrison or Clay Matthews, the reality is that many successful 34 defenses have been based around good, productive outside linebackers like Shaun Phillips and Mike Vrabel." He isn't going to be a star pass rusher, but as a guy who knows how to play both against the run and the pass, he could be a key part of our OLB rotation. The guy is a football player, and I wouldn't bet against him.

Further reading:

Under-Rated Prospect Stanford OLB Chase Thomas | National Football Post

Scouting the Draft: Stanford OLB Chase Thomas - Field Gulls

Chase Thomas, Conundrum - Evaluations - Rotoworld.com

2013 NFL Draft: Scouting Report--Chase Thomas - Battle Red Blog

 

[SaintsJunkie]

I'm not impressed, but I also think Dion Jordan will be a huge BUST

 

[Saint Kamara]

People weren't down on Shanle because he wasn't "flashy", people were down on him because he couldn't cover a tight end to save his life.

Which would be an achilles heel for Chase Thomas as well with 4.8-4.9 speed.

His problem is he is a tweener from not being big and strong enough to play ILB in the 3-4 and athletic enough to play OLB in the 3-4.

He's a project at best. But that's what UDFAs and a lot of late round draft picks are all about.

It's fun to dream. But you're setting yourself up for major disappointment.

 

[SaintsJunkie]

I'm not impressed, but I also think Dion Jordan will be a huge BUST

 

[Snakehead]

Which would be an achilles heel for Chase Thomas as well with 4.8-4.9 speed.

His problem is he is a tweener from not being big and strong enough to play ILB in the 3-4 and athletic enough to play OLB in the 3-4.

He's a project at best. But that's what UDFAs and a lot of late round draft picks are all about.

It's fun to dream. But you're setting yourself up for major disappointment.

Some tweeners without the prototypical measurables turn out okay. I saw the comparison to Rob Ninkovich. If Chase Thomas can do what Nink does, we got us a nice addition via UDFA. There have been plenty of guys with an abundance of talent with no heart that fizzle out in the NFL while there are just as many guys with questionable talent and more heart that thrive.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Shanle's had what? an 11 yr career (if this is the last)
as an LB?
all the bashing aside, there are probably many things worse than being the new shanle

 

[la. champ1]

Which would be an achilles heel for Chase Thomas as well with 4.8-4.9 speed.

His problem is he is a tweener from not being big and strong enough to play ILB in the 3-4 and athletic enough to play OLB in the 3-4.

He's a project at best. But that's what UDFAs and a lot of late round draft picks are all about.

It's fun to dream. But you're setting yourself up for major disappointment.

Definately not perfect, but what new player is. With that being said, he is far from a project. He will have to adjust to the speed of the NfL like all rookies, but he has the body of work and knowledge over a three year period against decent competition. He is a Very good run defender and a very effective pass rusher, and can excel in those areas. If you ask him to cover tony Gonzalez or Vernon Davis then you will be sadly dissappointed. He isn't made for that, but neither is Terrell Suggs, aldon smith, Kruger, and overwhelming majority of 3-4 linebackers. These tight ends will likely be more the job of the safety. Would not surprise me one bit to see him make the team and be in the rotation, but time will tell the tale.

 

[Nymm]

He may lack ideal physical tools but his technique looks really polished. On top of that we need to be priming a new leader for our D and this guy could be it.

I really like his chances just based on work ethic, smarts and good fundamentals.

 

[Saint Kamara]

Some tweeners without the prototypical measurables turn out okay. I saw the comparison to Rob Ninkovich. If Chase Thomas can do what Nink does, we got us a nice addition via UDFA. There have been plenty of guys with an abundance of talent with no heart that fizzle out in the NFL while there are just as many guys with questionable talent and more heart that thrive.

yes it does go both ways

If we were still in a 4-3, I would say Chase Thomas would have an excellent chance at making the team.

 

[Lucketty]

He's a project at best. But that's what UDFAs and a lot of late round draft picks are all about.

It's fun to dream. But you're setting yourself up for major disappointment.

I get what you're saying, but I wouldn't identify him as a project, which confers a sense of the player getting better technically or figuring out how to play football. I just don't think there's an incredible amount of room for him to improve in that sense. I think he'll either adjust to the speed of the game and use his football IQ and technique to continue playing much as he does now with possibly some further tweaks here or there, or he'll discover that he's woefully out of his class athletically and he'll be out of the league fairly quickly. The NFL has decided that he's option #2.

However, I don't think his athleticism is a deal breaker, either from his film or his numbers. A dumb example with another linebacker projected at 3-4 OLB (each player's best listed times, which are pro day in most cases for both).

Height 6'2 5/8"; 6'3 2/8"
Weight 249; 244
40 4.92; 4.80
3 cone 7.43; 7.17
Shuttle 4.69; 4.31
VJ 30.5; 33.5
Broad 9'3"; 9'9"
Bench 20; 21

You can probably imagine who player A and player B are, but in case you haven't seen these before, they're Jarvis Jones and Chase Thomas respectively.

In terms of getting overly excited, we have this argument every year. I always identify 1-2 guys from the outset that I think can play, and cheering for them makes the offseason fun. My favorites from the night of the draft were Junior Galette, Tyrunn Walker, and Jon Casillas, and those guys have at least made the team and in 2/3 cases were contributors. The Saints always have 1-2 undrafted guys make the team, and usually we as a forum have been pretty good at identifying those guys from the outset.

 

[dwid]

He ran a 4.9 40...that's why he wasnt drafted.

at the combine, he lowered it to a 4.8, meanwhile everyone was on Jarvis Jones nuts when he ran a 4.9 AT HIS PRO DAY, yet it didn't hurt his stock, if he ran at the combine he would have been lucky to crack 5 seconds

 

[Optimistic Ozzy]

I will be shocked if Chase Thomas makes this team.

I'll be shocked if he doesn't make it to the practice squad at the very least.

 

[60minutes]

Sproles, if you read my multiple posts you know that I like Thomas a lot.

The guy may not be a physical specimen, or even fast as a pass rusher, but he is very intelligent and tend to make proper decisions.

But more then that, the guy has a lot of character, he took the Stanford defense on his back.

I don't know if he is going to make the team, but he will give it all and fight until the end.

I wante him since the 3rd. round.

Thomas is a solid player and I expect him to make the team. I know you are very high him and we should feel lucky to have signed him.

Another day, another video courtesy of DraftBreakdown.com. Chase Thomas hasn't made many waves this offseason in preparation for the NFL draft, but he's been one of Stanford's best players for years now and will almost certainly hear his name called on day two of the draft.

Luckily for Chase, he's put excellent production on tape for the last three years, and even earned high praise from SI.com's Andy Staples yesterday, who compared Thomas to Oregon's Dion Jordan, who is seen as a top-5 pick:

This obviously isn't a perfect system, and rarely do we get such a perfect head-to-head comparison. But when other factors are equal, I'm still taking the guy who produced more. Which explains why I would skip Dion Jordan, save my money and draft Chase Thomas. Anyone who watched the Pac-12 the past few years knows exactly what Thomas can do. The draftniks who only read first-round mocks probably have no idea who Thomas is... Stanford's Thomas (6-4, 248) will go three to four rounds after Jordan, and all Thomas did -- playing against the same offensive lines as Jordan -- was get in the backfield more often (14.5 TFL, 7.5 sacks).

A good fit would be any NFL team that plays a 3-4 defense and needs depth at linebacker. With that in mind, the Jets, Saints and Browns would be good fits for Thomas to step in and play significant snaps in his rookie year.

If you're looking for more videos of Chase, check out his games against Washington, UCLA and Notre Dame.

What do you think - where would you like to see Chase end up

Good stuff, there! He's been very productive and is a heady player who will last in this league.

in other words, he's the new shanle?

No. Besides, for every Scott Shanle, there's a Zach Thomas or James Laurinaitis who does well.

He ran a 4.9 40...that's why he wasnt drafted.

Didn't you want Jarvis Jones who ran a 4.9?

And Sam Mills.

My thoughts, exactly. I swear I made that same argument to someone two hours ago.

 

[jimrip]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>just realized my room knew which team i would end up at <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23meanttobe">#meanttobe</a> ? <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23WHODAT">#WHODAT</a> <a href="http://t.co/AVfjNA31MG" title="http://twitter.com/CTcard44/status/329003687273959424/photo/1">twitter.com/CTcard44/statu&#8230;</a></p>&mdash; Chase Thomas (@CTcard44) <a href="https://twitter.com/CTcard44/status/329003687273959424">April 29, 2013</a></blockquote>
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