Cleveland Browns: Comprehensive 2018 NFL Draft review

Chad Thomas, DE – Miami (FL)

The Browns traded down from 64th pick, acquired as part of the Carson Wentz trade, to get the 178th pick, to get to 67th pick. They then used that third round pick and chose Chad Thomas, the defensive lineman out of Miami, who’s more famous for his music career than his football career to date.

Athletic Profile

Age: 22 years old (Born Oct. 12, 1995)

Height: 6-5
Weight: 281 lbs
40 Yard Dash: 4.92s (4.78s at Pro Day)
Broad Jump: 9’8″ (9’10” at Pro Day)
Vertical: 29″ (32.5″ at Pro Day)
3-Cone: 7.36s (Pro Day)
Shuttle: 4.83s (Pro Day)
Bench: DNP

Underwhelming. There’s little to be excited about from an athletic standpoint with Thomas and his agility and balance are the worst, which isn’t ideal for a defensive lineman. He’s pretty average from a speed and explosive point of view and falls short of any meaningful threshold.

Production

Career Starts: 25

Solo Tackles: 41 (3.7 percent)
Tackles for Loss: 23.5 (10.7 percent)
Sacks: 9.5 (11.7 percent)

His production is worse than his athleticism. There just isn’t much to write home about with Thomas from a production point of view. He did actually lead the Canes in tackles for loss, but his individual impact wasn’t great. The Hurricanes defense didn’t really have super impactful individual players but had a lot of production spread across their roster.

Based on his production, Thomas is not likely to be anything more than a starter and might be more of a backup, which is not great return for investment of the pick.

Game Tape

Chad Thomas is an extremely sound run defender. He’s always cognizant where he’s supposed to be, taking away the outside and forcing ball carriers back inside. He’s pretty strong at the point of attack, is relatively difficult to move and can absorb contact pretty well. Thomas is pretty good about keeping his outside hand free while locating the ball carrier and working to close to it.

Thomas as a pass rusher is remarkably ordinary. Largely, all of his pass rushing success is due to scheme and somehow overwhelming the opponent or confusing them, allowing Thomas to run free. And he can occasionally cause his share of disruption, but it’s not often because of what he’s doing and he rarely is the one creating it.

When he’s actually facing a blocker, he wins with a dip move running up the field and usually ends up getting pushed past the play as he doesn’t have the agility to consistently turn the corner and get to the quarterback. He actually resembles a running back fighting off tacklers on his way to the backfield as opposed to defeating blocks.

Thomas rarely uses his hands to take on and defeat blockers. As a result, he basically never wins those matchups. He runs into the opposing blocker, who just has to absorb the initial contact before easily controlling and neutralizing Thomas, who does nothing. He even loses reps to tight ends in an era where so few tight ends can block to save their lives.

Thomas is able to use drop into coverage and looks good doing it, especially at his size. That likely caught the eye of Gregg Williams.

Fit, Usage and Projection with the Browns

Thomas is a run stopping left end and maybe utilized as a interior pass rush presence. Emmanuel Ogbah is a stalwart end and when he’s in, he largely takes away half the field in the running game. It seems as though Thomas is there to help the Browns continue to have a strong run presence and force action inside.

A lot is going to be put on defensive line coach Clyde Simmons with this pick, because he’s going to basically have to teach him how to use his hands, shed blocks and contribute anything as a pass rusher. Entering the league, Thomas brings nothing to that area of the game.

Thomas fits the trend of long defensive linemen that the Browns like, particularly on the outside. He’s raw and not all that athletic, but the Browns, perhaps encouraged by a good week of practice at the Shrine Game, believe they can get something out of him he has not shown to this point in his career.

Thomas is going to compete against guys like Carl Nassib, Nate Orchard and Chris Smith for reps and a role. The Browns are becoming so fluid with their defensive linemen that they can put almost all of them at any spot on the defensive line, depending on the situation.

Unless Thomas develops in ways he simply hasn’t shown to this point, particularly with how he uses his hands, it’s difficult to project him as anything more than a role player. And it’s not difficult to envision a scenario where he doesn’t make the team after one season, perhaps being a third round pick trying to be put on the practice squad.

It just seems that Thomas is going to have to overcome his athleticism, production and technical limitations to make this pick work and it seems like a pick destined to underwhelm in the best case scenario. And if he’s unable to do that, he’s likely going to be replaced in short order, which is a poor use of the 67th overall pick.