Joe Thomas: Andrew Thomas was most risky OT in draft
When the New York Giants found themselves on the clock in the 2020 NFL Draft, they had their pick of four talented offensive tackles and ultimately settled on Andrew Thomas of Georgia.
Thomas was widely considered the most NFL-ready of the group by pundits and anonymous scouts, but through seven weeks of the regular season, it would appear most got it wrong.
Thomas has struggled mightily and only appears to be regressing at this point. He’s dealing with various technique issues, has been benched for violating team rules and has seen fellow rookie, Matt Peart, steal a few snaps from him.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but NFL legend Joe Thomas believes that if anyone were truly paying attention, they’d have known Thomas had the most risk factor of the foursome.
“Andrew Thomas was the most risky,” Thomas told the New York Post. “With an offensive lineman’s eye, you look at him right away and say, ‘He has a lot of room to grow, and he needs a ton of work and reps.’ [Others] were basing it on accolades not game film, playing in the SEC and tons of starts. He checked a lot of the boxes that typically have not failed for offensive tackles, but then you watch the tape and clearly see biomechanically he doesn’t match up to those other guys.
“When I watched Andrew, I saw a guy with a lot of potential — great athlete, big, strong, fast, moves extremely well, all the things that get you to be a top-15 draft pick as an offensive tackle. But he was the least natural from a technique standpoint. If you watch offensive linemen, when they get in a bad position — because they eventually will — can they recover? That was the big thing that concerned me with Andrew.”
As rookies, Jedrick Wills, Mekhi Becton and Tristan Wirfs are also dealing with some minor technique issues, but Thomas appears to be dealing with them on a much larger scale.
“He gets his shoulder pads way out over his toes a lot,” Joe Thomas said. “You see him bending at his waist. He’s got to learn to be an ankle- and a knee-bender, which takes time. He leaned on guys a lot. You could see the quickness in his feet, but he wasn’t natural in reacting to the defense. You get away with a lot of that playing in college when you are a bigger, stronger, more athletic version of the guy you are going against.”
Thomas also has an issue with picking his feet high up off the ground as opposed to shuffling, which leaves him off-balance and susceptible to bull rushes. He often finds himself on skates as a result, and teams are beginning to exploit that issue more and more.
The argument could be made that Thomas needed minicamps, OTAs and additional practices more than the other three rookie tackles, but it’s the same playing field for the entire group. Thomas is struggling and the other three aren’t — it’s as simple as that.
Will Thomas get better as he gains more experience? Time will tell and there are certainly reasons to be optimistic, but for now, his play does not reflect well on general manager Dave Gettleman, head coach Joe Judge or offensive line coach Marc Colombo.
