Film Study – TE Logan Thomas

September 3, 2020

by Steve Thomas

I haven’t done one of these big film study columns in awhile, principally because they are a ton of work and time (#laziness).  However, with Washington’s tight end group being a major weakness of this offense, it seems like the right time to take a close look at the new probable starter, Logan Thomas.  Let’s get started.

Background

Thomas (6’6” / 250 lbs) was originally recruited to Virginia Tech as a quarterback, and played in 47 games from 2010 to 2013, completing 693 of 1248 passes for a 55.5% completion percentage, 9,003 yards, 52 touchdowns, and 39 interceptions.  At the 2014 NFL Combine, he ran the 40 yard dash in 4.61 seconds and jumped 35.5 inches in the vertical leap.  Thomas was drafted in the 4th round of the 2014 draft by the Arizona Cardinals.  He played in two games in 2014 as a rookie quarterback, with 1 completion in 9 attempts, for 81 yards and a touchdown.  Arizona released Thomas on September 5, 2015.  He then spent most of the rest of the 2015 season on the Miami Dolphins’ practice squad, but was activated in the final quarter of the season.  The Dolphins released him in the 2016 offseason, and he was picked up by the Giants shortly thereafter.  He bounced between New York’s practice squad and the active roster for most of the season before being released again in late November, 2016.  Thomas was signed by the Detroit Lions later that week and then switched his position to tight end.  The Buffalo Bills signed Thomas to their active roster on November 30, 2016.

In 2017, Thomas played in 12 games for the Bills, starting 2, making 7 receptions in 9 targets for 67 yards and 1 touchdown.  He stayed in Buffalo for the 2018 season, playing in 12 games, including 3 starts, with 12 receptions in 17 targets for 77 yards.  He signed with Detroit in the last offseason and played in all 16 games in 2019, with 3 starts, making 16 receptions in 28 targets, 173 yards, and 1 touchdown.  In total, as a tight end, Thomas has 35 receptions in 54 targets, 317 yards, 9.1 yards per attempt, and 2 touchdowns.  Last year with the Lions, Thomas was behind starter Jesse James and highly-touted rookie T.J. Hockenson on the depth chart until Hockenson went on injured reserve late in the season.

Thomas signed with Washington in March but was placed on the team’s COVID-19 list before being activated on August 9, 2020.

What does his film show?

As I always say in these film studies, I am not a professional scout.  I’m just a regular person with enough insanity to sit around watching NFL and college game film in slow motion.  Take my observations for what you will.  #notascout.

For this effort, I studied the game film from the Lions’ week 12 battle against the Redskins, their week 14 game against the Vikings, and their week 17 game against the Packers.

Thomas’ game is in the mold of a traditional inline tight end, and he holds many of the skills necessary to serve as Washington’s starting tight end of the future.  He’s not going to remind anyone of Jordan Reed, and he’s very inexperienced, but what he showed with the Lions gives me hope that he can be a valuable asset here in Washington.

In every clip, Thomas is #82, and I identify him by circling him with the computer pointer at the beginning of each play.

Thomas is mostly a quality blocker

Thomas is an above average blocker.  He has more strength than I expected, uses good leverage, plays with a physical style, and mostly has good hand placement to gain leverage over his opponent.  As the first series of clips shows, he was able to hold his own one on one against the Redskins’ Montez Sweat and Ryan Kerrigan:

The first three plays are all versus Sweat.  In the first two, in particular, Thomas locks up Sweat and gets his hands inside on Sweat’s pads at least long enough to keep Sweat out of the play.  Considering Thomas is a tight end, that’s more than acceptable.  In the final play, at first glance it appears as though Thomas may have whiffed on his block, but it actually looks like Sweat tried to take a path that was way too wide and Thomas, knowing the play was a run, simply guided him right out of the play.  The fourth play against Kerrigan is just brutal – if you only watch one thing out of all of these plays, watch this one.

Here’s a representative sample of Thomas’ blocking ability:

The first two plays are from the Redskins game.  In the first play, Thomas matches up with All Pro Landon Collins one on one; notice how Thomas gets his hands on the inside of Collins’ pads and keeps him out of the play.  In the second play, Thomas locks up with linebacker Cassanova McKinzy.  Thomas eventually loses his leverage and lets McKinzy loose, but it’s well after the play breaks down thanks to Sweat’s rush from the opposite edge.  In the third play, against the Packers, notice how well Thomas matches up against Green Bay’s defensive end Dean Lowry, once again playing physical, and is able to establish leverage after Lowry spins back around to face him again.  In the fourth play, Thomas uses his strength to drive the Minnesota linebacker several yards out of the play.  In the final play, also from the Vikings game, Thomas is quick enough to move laterally and establish leverage despite the Vikings linebacker immediately taking an inside track.

Thomas frequently uses the cut block technique, to varying degrees of success:

In the first play, Thomas successfully gets Ryan Anderson to the ground and out of the play, which is a positive result.  In the second play, in particular, Thomas essentially misses his cut and fails to get the player to the ground, but does manage to slow him down long enough to take the defender out of the play.  The third play against Minnesota isn’t a great effort either, but Thomas does just enough to keep the defender from making the tackle.

He has been a lead blocker

Ron Rivera spoke this past weekend about his plan to have a tight end filling the fullback role since the original fullback on the roster, Michael Burton, left.  Thomas has at least some experience as a lead blocker:

Both of these plays are quarterback read options, with the quarterback keeping the ball and Thomas leading him to the edge.  I did not find any instances of Thomas lead blocking for a running back into an interior gap.

Thomas has good hands

This was the rare film study where I didn’t have to sort through a whole bunch of catches in order find the handful that best represent the player’s abilities.  Thomas had a combined 6 catches in the three games I studied, so I’ll show all of them here:

In these 6 plays, Thomas ran (1) a post (plus a small outside move off the line of scrimmage) against the Redskins that went for touchdown; (2) a dig route, also against the Redskins, in which Thomas was wide open thanks to a defensive bust; (3) another in route against the Packers, this time with the pass coming quicker than the one against the Redskins; (4) a 10 yard buttonhook against Minnesota; (5) a similar comebacker against the Vikings, only with his release slanted to the outside; and (6) a flat pass after a chip block on the defensive end.

What you should pick up in these plays are the quality catches in both play #3 (the in route) and play #4 (the first buttonhook against Minnesota).  He hasn’t shown amazing hands like Odell Beckham Jr. with the Giants or Antonio Gandy-Golden at Liberty, but for a former quarterback who only became a tight end in 2016, he’s demonstrated some ability that could be useful to Washington.

He’s at least an average route runner

As shown above, Thomas has at least some experience running some the route tree, certainly all that will be expected of a traditional inline tight end.  This series of six plays were not completions, but shows a bit of variety in his routes in his limited playing time in Detroit:

The routes shown in this series of clips are: (1) another dig route against the Packers; (2) a square out against Washington; (3) a 12 yard buttonhook against the Packers; (4) a fly pattern out of the slot against Minnesota; (5) a post against Washington; and (6) a mid-level vertical clearing route in which the principal receiver was out of the slot and Thomas’ role was to take the safety with him and then serve as downfield blocking.  I didn’t see Thomas using advanced footwork or release off the line, so his ability to separate and get completions is based mostly on the play scheme and his willingness to use his strength and quality hands, but there’s nothing wrong with that.  Thomas can be an asset in Washington’s passing game.

Negatives

Every player has negatives, and Thomas is no exception.  For one thing, he does miss some blocks, as this series of plays demonstrates:

As you can see in the slips, when Thomas gets beat, it’s mostly because of the defender’s agility and moves, not strength issues in a bull rush or bad leverage.  He’s not going to get outmuscled, but he can get beat by quickness and by rushers who have a wide variety of creative moves.

Finally, his primary limitation as a pass catcher is that he’s not particularly quick off the line or agile in his breaks as are the NFL’s top pass catching tight ends.  The Lions’ T.J. Hockenson looked to be significantly quicker and more agile in the games I studied, for example.  As a result, I don’t think Thomas’ destiny is as a Jordan Reed or Travis Kelce type of tight end who are dangerous weapons for their respective teams.

Conclusions

I think Logan Thomas has the ability to be a solid starter for Washington, particularly given the state of the tight end group.  Thomas obviously lacks experience, but his strength and aggressive play style in blocking can be of immense value, and his hands and ability to run standard tight end routes will make him an asset in the passing game even if he doesn’t end up becoming a threat that opposing defenses fear.  He needs reps and playing time, but the same can be said for almost every player on Washington’s offense beyond Adrian Peterson, Brandon Scherff, and Chase Roullier.  Thomas can grow and develop along with the other young talent on this team and, if all goes well, has a chance to stick with the team for the long term.

 

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