Joe Thomas does a good job breaking down Andrew Thomas’ gameplay
Cleveland Browns great and NFL Network analyst, Joe Thomas recently spoke with the New York Post about the tough season that New York Giants rookie left tackle Andrew Thomas has had.
A former left tackle himself and a future Hall of Famer, Thomas said that looking at Andrew Thomas’ film from college, he is a very risky draft pick for the Giants.
“Andrew Thomas was the most risky,” future Hall of Fame left tackle Joe Thomas told The 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.”
Joe says the biggest issue is Thomas’ technique.
“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,” Joe said. “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.”
“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.”
Joe made a good point about that Thomas missing OTA’s and minicamps due to the COVID-19 pandemic, likely likely not helping him.
“It’s the position that takes the most drill and practice with contact,” Joe Thomas said. “As a rookie, I learned so much in that OTAs and minicamp period. They lost all of that. The number of good reps Andrew has had up until this point is probably equivalent to where I was about the 10th OTA or minicamp after I got drafted.”
With fellow rookie offensive lineman Matt Peart outplaying Thomas it will be interesting to see if the Giants keep him at left tackle The best move would likely be to have Peart start on the left side and put Thomas at right tackle.
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