Solomon Thomas

[Forge]

Just now, NinerNation21 said:

That's the thing, though, he's not a pass rusher. He's a run-stopping, gap penetrator. He was drafted above where he should've been. Originally, he was seen as a high second-round pick before the draft season hype really picked up. He should've been a late first, early second-round pick with the idea of using him as a run stopper who could eventually provide decent interior pass rushing ability. Instead, he was drafted as what Nick Bosa is now. This is a clear miss evaluation and misuse candidate. I like Thomas and generally, like the drafts from Lynch. But, Thomas was a clear miss. 

The amount of credit he got from that final UNC game in college was immense. 

[NinerNation21]

Just now, Forge said:

The amount of credit he got from that final UNC game in college was immense. 

I'll admit, I got sucked up into the "what could be" of Thomas. I still really like him as a person and player and really want to see him succeed. But, I fully admit that he will never live up to the 3rd overall pick status that he has. It's just unrealistic. 

[John232]

7 hours ago, y2lamanaki said:

Agreed almost completely. I did think he could be elite or close to it as a pass rusher inside, but the pick made little sense to me because we already had Armstead for that role and Buckner next to him. I wanted one of the safeties (Hooker, specifically).

I know the prevailing wisdom is that we won't re-sign Armstead, but I wonder how hard we will try. In theory you could just plug in the next guy up, but it seems like that would be Thomas and it seems like the team hasn't been fully interested in that. I doubt the team will pick up Thomas's 5th year option given that it will be considerably pricier than Armstead was this year as Thomas was picked at #3. So that would make Solomon Thomas a free agent in 2021. Then what? I think the team might hope it could re-sign Armstead at a relative discount, and given the camaraderie of the team, maybe Armstead would be willing. 

And if not, I hope Armstead balls out over the next 16 games of his 49ers career, we franchise tag him, and trade him to at the very least recoup our 2nd round pick. 

I thought Thomas was a first round pick and worth a top ten pick. Just not by us. I really thought he could've been a really good player. Never worth the top 3 pick, but  essentially do what Armstead is doing now, I thought if he was used like Michael Bennett, a guy who blows up strong side runs on base downs with strength and getoff and then he could knife inside on passing downs and just be a pressure machine with his speed and agility advantage inside. Fact is, he couldn't do either. He's really not strong enough to beat double teams and though he absolutely does have great speed for a DT, his inability to break down and make the play and thus over-pursue sort of negates whatever get-off and pressure he does create inside..not to mention once a lineman gets there hands on him, it's game over. 

I would say the methodology behind picking Thomas was sound, you want a guy who dominates in big games (check), tests athletically (check), consistently produced in college (checK) and high character guy (check). Like, he pretty much checked all my boxes EXCEPT for the fact that we had that position covered already. 

 

I'm not sure what we can do to create cap for Armstead, but If he continues at this rate, we're for sure losing him. We might see Paraag really try to pull of some magic this off-season though. Whether it be with Jet, Solly, or someone else, I'd expect some weird stuff to happen. I think there is going to be a charge lead to keep him.