Is Charlie Thomas The Most Underrated Linebacker In The 2023 NFL Draft?
The 2023 NFL Combine is this week and Georgia Tech is going to have two participants in Indianapolis. Linebacker Charlie Thomas and defensive lineman Keion White are going to be going through drills and team interviews with NFL teams this week and hope to raise their draft stock.
White is considered a first-round pick by a number of NFL Draft evaluators and has seen his stock skyrocket in the past two months. He is sure to be one of the most talked-about players this week as he tries to land himself among the top edge rushers in this draft.
But what about Charlie Thomas?
I am not here to try and say that Thomas should be a top-10 pick or even a first-round pick. I am here to say that for someone that just turned in the season he did, there does not seem to be a lot of buzz around Thomas heading into this week and I think that could be a mistake.
Thomas had a fantastic season that resulted in him earning second-team All-ACC from the AP. He finished the 2022 season with over 100 tackles, had two sacks, two pass deflections, two interceptions, and two forced fumbles. He was a constant playmaker for the Yellow Jackets and he is not going to be easy to replace next season.
Thomas was an All-ACC honorable mention in 2021 after having 70 total tackles and a team-high 10 for loss. Thomas also had two interceptions last season. He had been on the field for the Yellow Jackets ever since his freshman season in 2018.
Charlie Thomas is one of the most underrated prospects in this year's draft
Before the 2022 season, ESPN's Todd McShay released the list of his top prospects at each position and Thomas made the cut. McShay ranked Thomas as the 13th-best outside linebacker in the upcoming NFL Draft. With a good performance at the Georgia Tech pro day and the NFL combine, Thomas could move up the draft boards and I think he should.
The Athletic's Dane Brugler did not have Thomas listed as one of his top 15 linebackers in his most recent position rankings in January.
Let's take a closer look at Thomas' PFF (Pro Football Focus) grades throughout his career as a Yellow Jacket.
During his freshman season in 2018, Thomas played 412 total snaps and finished with a 62.0 grade overall, a 64.0 grade on run defense, a 50.5 tackling grade, a 60.1 pass-rush grade, and a 60.4 grade in coverage, playing a total of 122 snaps in coverage. Those were solid numbers for a freshman and he hoped to improve those in the years to come.
In 2019, Thomas played a similar number of snaps in 2019 as he did in 2018, playing 419 total snaps. He finished with a 62.6 grade on defense, with a 55.7 grade in run defense, 59.4 in tackling, 62.8 pass rush, and a 70.0 grade in coverage, playing 139 total snaps in coverage.
2020 saw Thomas play 246 snaps and earn a career-low grade of 54.4 on defense with a 63.3 run defense grade, 69.9 tackling grade, 57.4 pass rushing grade, and a 47.1 grade in coverage.
In 2021 and 2022, Thomas saw his snap counts increase each season and had the best two seasons of his career. He played 614 total snaps and had a career-best 71.6 grade on defense, with a 63.4 grade on run defense, 70.5 tackling grade, 58.3 pass rush, and an 80.5 coverage grade in 228 coverage snaps.
Charlie Thomas improved in each season
This past season, Thomas finished with a 65.2 grade in 766 total snaps, with a 58.8 run defense grade, 75.8 in tackling, 75.6 pass rush, and a 70.1 grade in coverage in 298 coverage snaps.
If you trust the PFF numbers, I think you can see the kind of player that Thomas could be in the NFL. Because of his size at 6'2 207 LBS, I don't think that Thomas is going to be a traditional linebacker that plays a lot of snaps in the box. I think he could make a mark as a safety or linebacker in nickel packages that is used in coverage and as a blitzer. Thomas tallied 10 career sacks at Georgia Tech, as well as reeling in four interceptions. His coverage grades of 80.5 in 2021 and 70.1 in 2022 suggest that there is potential for Thomas to be a good coverage player and the 10 sacks show he can be an effective blitzer from different places around the field.
Our NFL Draft site here at FanNation gave an evaluation of Thomas back in December and here is what they had to say about his NFL future:
"Stringy but chiseled musculature. Will that can also play as an overhang or spy in sub-packages. Rangy and sideline-sideline flow immediately stands out. Knows when to trigger on QB vs stay in pass coverage. Great feet and shuffle keep him in every play with the ability to scrape and finish. Poor eyes. Lack of awareness as a zone dropper. Seems to rely on pure athleticism as of now. Brings himself to traffic. Poor angles and fundamental tackling issues as a Blitzer and in the open field. Thomas is an athletic linebacker that can scrape, shed, and finish with the best of them. His overall utility is countered by his size though, as he is too slight to play on a down-in, down-out basis. That’s ok given today’s schemes and personnel packages where defensive coordinators leverage speed over size to combat today’s NFL offenses. A situational role will be his best fit but with an acceptance to the shrine bowl and athletic testing still to come, these endeavors could bump his draft positioning"
With all of this being said, I think that Thomas is not being talked about enough as a potential draft pick and impact player at the next level. Georgia Tech was a noticeable better defense when he was out there and he just has a knack for making plays at the right time. I think he is one of the most underrated linebackers in this draft and is set to make an NFL team glad they took a chance on him this April.
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