Originally posted by eastcoast49ersfan:
Let's get one thing straight. Thomas is not more athletic than Khalil Mack. His 3 cone time and shuttle time, while impressive, do not make him more agile or more flexible than Mack. They are drills run one time and hand timed with a high degree of error and variability (you could have a bad start, you could have a bad attempt where your transition from cone to cone isn't great). This doesn't supersede all the tape on these guys and their performance in position drills.
On the other hand, Khalil Mack is clearly more explosive and faster and has the jumps, the 40 time, and the 10 yard split to support that. He also has slightly longer arms at 33 1/4". If I'm picking a player for the LEO position, I'm choosing Mack 100 times out of 100 before Solomon Thomas.
Thomas is a great player and may be the best available player at 2, but he's not the kind of talent who is a lock to go in the top 3 in any draft. He's someone who could fall to the 6-10 range in this year's draft because his size is a concern on the interior and his length and lack of experience is a concern on the edge (particularly if teams are unsure of his ability to bend). In this particular draft, I don't think there's a huge talent disparity between Thomas and guys who could be available at 10.
Even if Garrett had a poor time in the shuttle and 3 cone (and I'm not convinced he would), he would still blow Thomas out of the water as a prospect because of his vastly superior length and his proven ability to bend off the edge. If we're considering picking Thomas at 2 to play him at LEO, I hope we're attempting to trade up with the Browns for Garrett. Maybe they like Trubisky or Watson and would be fine only getting a 2nd round pick back in addition to the #2 pick. Garrett would be worth it in my opinion.
I didn't say he is a better athlete than Mack, I said he graded out as a better athlete than Mack. That says a lot about his abilities. I'm pretty sure if i was to run the combine drills and Mack got a late start or did it with a bum hammy he'd still beat my numbers.
The point of those numbers show that the kid is special and very athletic given his size. The only size concern with him is more for teams intend on playing him inside as a full time DT. That will not be our issue.
And Garrett will be gone so no point comparing him to Thomas. If he's there at #2 he's our pick simple as that. Mack was a comparison to make people realize just how special Thomas' performance was because it totally falls by the wayside because of Garrett and guys like Jordan Willis.
But the reason Thomas is worth #2 overall is because he is a freak athlete but is a great kid who has a ton of passion for the game, plays hard all the time and gives the game his best every snap. This is the type of guy you want to build teams around and coaches want to coach up.
I understand the team possibly looking to trade down because this draft is deep and getting another 2nd round+ this year would really help us out. But I'd hate to see him go to another team and dominate while we find out that our guys outside of Buckner just aren't good enough. Or the guy we draft at Leo ends up being too one dimensional.
