Michael Thomas - Sports Science (1 Viewer)

[jackers]

http://youtu.be/Z54yUeh_NBw

 

[Surviving Saint]

66/67 one handed catches. Our very own Odell Beckham. This is what we have been waiting for. A No.1 WR for Drew Brees.

 

[rockthedox]

I was just about to comment on this video in another post...WOW!

His hands are more than 1/2" bigger than OBJ! Catch radius the same size as Gronk!

Fitzgerald has 10.5" hands. Thomas has 10.625". Pretty sure he has the biggest WR hands in the league.

Gronk's hands are 10.75". For comparison, a standard sheet of copy paper is 11". So is the length of an NFL football.

I'm trying not to overhype but I'm pretty excited about this guy. Perfect complement to Cooks. Fleener is going to kill it as well. Snead should also be open pretty much all of the time while everyone is busy with whichever RB we're using, Fleener, Cooks, and Thomas.

It's going to be a long summer...

 

[jessy]

Impressive.

 

[ndcc]

Championship! :evilgrin:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z54yUeh_NBw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[WhoDat_SB44]

Yes I love this kid! I was shocked he made it to 47. I was screaming please take Thomas or Reed!! If we wouldn't of been so thin at receiver I would of loved to have gotten Jarran Reed, but Michael Thomas was a perfect fit. I still think Treadwell would of been an even better fit, but this guy came in a really close second with Josh Doctson. Drew hasn't had a receiver like this guy IMO. Meachem was supposed to be a big, fast #1 or #2 receiver, but that didn't pan out. If Fleener and this guy ball out like we hope, we WILL be REALLY dangerous on O. Then if Brandon Coleman improves to be a damn good #4 guy, holy SSSS!! Can't wait to see Drew throwing this guy the ball!!


Cooks, Thomas, Snead, Coleman, Fleener, and Hill

vs

Colston, Devery, Lance, Meachem, Shockey, and D. Thomas

Pretty close and could be even better IMO!

 

[saintsfannca]

I was very critical of this pick when it occurred. I feel like we needed to find some offensive line help. I'm a big believer in BPA, so I can't fault the Saints for staying true to their board. I still feel 100% positive we would have taken Garnett had he been there, but he wasn't so CSP got what he feels like was one of the best WRs in the draft.

I'm also not big into Sports Science, because they can make anybody look incredible. But I've fallen on my sword a bit with this pick. After letting go that the talent for OG just wasn't there with our 2nd round pick (pending Whitehair's future), I went back and watched a lot more footage on him and he is impressive.

I still think almost any WR would be productive in this offense, and this may be a bit of a luxury pick. But I think this puts our WR talk to bed at least for the next 6-7 years. With Cooks, Snead, Thomas, Coleman all 23 and under (Thomas is actually older than Cooks which is crazy) we are set at the position with SOLID talent.

Thomas has some shake-a-bility for a deep ball which is awesome out of a guy his size. He's got great Height/Weight/Speed which is the triangle stat that teams look for in WRs. As shown in the video, he has large hands which he uses well in traffic. From everything I've seen and read, he likes to mix it up and isn't afraid of going between the hashes. He'll obviously be productive in this offense, but I like the way he moves and is able to rack up YAC.

I'll cross my fingers for the Offensive Line, because we still will only go as far as they can protect Drew. But I have forsure come around on this signing. Obviously always will cheer for any Saints player.

 

[WhoDat_SB44]

I was very critical of this pick when it occurred. I feel like we needed to find some offensive line help. I'm a big believer in BPA, so I can't fault the Saints for staying true to their board. I still feel 100% positive we would have taken Garnett had he been there, but he wasn't so CSP got what he feels like was one of the best WRs in the draft.

I'm also not big into Sports Science, because they can make anybody look incredible. But I've fallen on my sword a bit with this pick. After letting go that the talent for OG just wasn't there with our 2nd round pick (pending Whitehair's future), I went back and watched a lot more footage on him and he is impressive.

I still think almost any WR would be productive in this offense, and this may be a bit of a luxury pick. But I think this puts our WR talk to bed at least for the next 6-7 years. With Cooks, Snead, Thomas, Coleman all 23 and under (Thomas is actually older than Cooks which is crazy) we are set at the position with SOLID talent.

Thomas has some shake-a-bility for a deep ball which is awesome out of a guy his size. He's got great Height/Weight/Speed which is the triangle stat that teams look for in WRs. As shown in the video, he has large hands which he uses well in traffic. From everything I've seen and read, he likes to mix it up and isn't afraid of going between the hashes. He'll obviously be productive in this offense, but I like the way he moves and is able to rack up YAC.

I'll cross my fingers for the Offensive Line, because we still will only go as far as they can protect Drew. But I have forsure come around on this signing. Obviously always will cheer for any Saints player.

Receiver was a HUGE need IMO. That was no luxury pick by a long shot. This offense needs decent receivers to succeed. I know you think Colston, Devery, Lance, and Meachem were just average receivers, but they were not IMO. Devery and Meachem were taken in the 2nd and 1st rounds of the draft, so they had talent for sure. You don't just get picked early in the draft if you don't have talent. Meachem never lived up to expectations, but I would argue he couldn't beat out Devery & Lance to get more reps. Devery was WAY important to this offense. He stretched the field and opened up the underneath routes for Colston, Lance, and Shockey.

The defensive tackle postion was so deep and that's why I was such a proponent to adding a receiver early. The guards were terrible or didn't fit what we wanted in them. Just the fact that Joshua Garnett went in the first shows that it was really weak. He shouldn't of been a first round pick IMO. Plenty of teams took guards through out the draft and we didn't so that tells me it wasn't as big of a need as we thought. I mean if it was and none of them were BPA at our picks, we should of been trading back and not trading up IMO. Or we should of traded up for a guard which we didn't.

 

[All The Way]

Here is the Vonn Bell Sports Science: Sport Science: The mechanics of Vonn Bell's movement - ESPN Video

 

[RetroMcBananaFace]

I think what people forget is that we didn't have a viable 3 WR formation last year. Cooks and Snead are both fantastic players, but without a third guy that can stretch out the defense just that little bit extra, they fought for everything they got. IMO that is a big reason why Watson caught so many balls last year. Replace Watson with Fleener and add Thomas, and you've now got four really dynamic pass catchers instead of two.

Remember the 09 team and all those 4 vertical sets they used to run? We now have the ability to do that again. It's been missing for a good two years, since Graham and Colston started declining. Not anymore, now we can put four guys on the field at once and know that any one of those four is a legitimate threat to make a big play.

 

[Bartyboy]

All I have to say is...
Hand Yoga.
Talk about some one dedicated to getting better.
I didn't even know there was such a thing as hand yoga.
Its not just hype either.
In the last 2 years he had 151 catchable passes thrown to him.
He only had 5 drops. That's 3.3%.
You only see those numbers for really good backs with very short throws.
66/67 one hand catches.
Tall long arms big hands rairly drops the ball.
Really excited about him.

 

[LoE]

Good post. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Eman5805]

I always wondered why the NFL combine only recorded a no step vert. How often does anyone jump straight up from a standstill?

 

[nola_dane]

There is a reason this guy was supposedly at the top of the saints WR list. When you watch that video you certainly can see why.

 

[demented]

Being able to to reliably make 1 handed contested catches is a big deal in the NFL. That is pretty much a defining trait of a #1 WR who can take a ball in traffic. If he's really that good then we may have just gotten a steal. He's only .1 slower than Antonio Brown and OBJ. I'll happily give up 1 tenth of a second in the 40 yard dash for an extra 3-4 inches/30 lbs of muscle. After looking at their measurable, he actually reminds me a lot of Alshon Jeffery. Jeffery supposedly ran a 4.47 but that was hand timed at his pro-day. No way that number wasn't in the 4.5x on the NFL's slow track with electronic timers.