Brandon Thomas tears ACL

[hstour]

Updated: April 7, 2014, 2:35 PM ET
By Adam Caplan | ESPN

Former Clemson guard Brandon Thomas, who is rated as one of the top interior offensive linemen available in this year's draft, suffered a torn ACL while working out last week, a league source said.

Thomas (6-foot-3, 317 pounds) is coming off an outstanding set of practices during the Senior Bowl and was seen as a probable second- or third-round pick before suffering his injury, according to NFL personnel sources.

He already had six pre-draft visits in recent weeks.

Thomas is ranked by ESPN's Scouts Inc. as the third-best guard available in May's draft.

Adam Caplan is an ESPN NFL Insider.




With 6 7th round picks, I'd take a flyer on him.....

 

[Cotton]

You only need 1 7th round pick to take him. No need to throw all 7 at him. Seems like overkill.

 

[Simpleton]

This is a guy I would've loved in the 3rd, perhaps even the 2nd depending on who was there, so considering that ACL's only take about 8 months to recover from I'd easily take him in the 6th.

 

[hstour]

This is a guy I would've loved in the 3rd, perhaps even the 2nd depending on who was there, so considering that ACL's only take about 8 months to recover from I'd easily take him in the 6th.

Dallas doesn't have a 6th round pick....

 

[hstour]

You only need 1 7th round pick to take him. No need to throw all 7 at him. Seems like overkill.

You are a real fun-gi.....

 

[Simpleton]

Dallas doesn't have a 6th round pick....

Then with any of the 7th's obviously, perhaps the 5th even.

 

[boozeman]

Then with any of the 7th's obviously, perhaps the 5th even.

If he is there in the seventh take him. The fifth is too high for a redshirt.

 

[NoDak]

If he is there in the seventh take him. The fifth is too high for a redshirt.

4th round.

Injured "steal"

~wink~

Book it.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

If he is there in the seventh take him. The fifth is too high for a redshirt.

Not necessarily but it kind of depends on the upside. You can take a redshirt player in the fourth but he sure as hell better project as a potential high end starter down the road in my opinion. If he grades as high as Leary or higher I'd have no problem using a fifth round pick on the player. Obviously as long as there are no long term health concerns.

 

[jsmith6919]

4th round.

Injured "steal"

~wink~

Book it.

I could see it happening, wasn't Arkin projected for the 6th-7th too?

 

[dallen]

Sounds like a Jerry Jones special. Probably our 2nd round pick

 

[Cowboysrock55]

He is also an OT/OG tweener which Jerry absolutely loves.

 

[boozeman]

Not necessarily but it kind of depends on the upside. You can take a redshirt player in the fourth but he sure as hell better project as a potential high end starter down the road in my opinion. If he grades as high as Leary or higher I'd have no problem using a fifth round pick on the player. Obviously as long as there are no long term health concerns.

We are not good enough up and down this roster to be able to afford any more of this red shirt crap more than in the last few rounds.

Since we supposedly have decided that we are going cheap in free agency and all in on the draft, we need to target players who can play, immediately.

If we tried to field our defense, as it stands right now, it would be a hilarious joke.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

We are not good enough up and down this roster to be able to afford any more of this red shirt crap more than in the last few rounds.

Since we supposedly have decided that we are going cheap in free agency and all in on the draft, we need to target players who can play, immediately.

If we tried to field our defense, as it stands right now, it would be a hilarious joke.

With a fifth round pick even if the guy isn't redshirting he probably won't contribute on much more then special teams. Hell a number of fifth round picks won't even make their teams rosters. It's one thing to draft a redshirt player who is a sixth round talent. If you find a guy who is a legit second round talent who maybe has to sit a year, I don't see anything wrong with that in the fifth round.

 

[boozeman]

With a fifth round pick even if the guy isn't redshirting he probably won't contribute on much more then special teams. Hell a number of fifth round picks won't even make their teams rosters. It's one thing to draft a redshirt player who is a sixth round talent. If you find a guy who is a legit second round talent who maybe has to sit a year, I don't see anything wrong with that in the fifth round.

We are not most teams. That is the whole issue. Most teams could throw away a pick and redshirt this guy.

This is a shit team with one of the worst defenses in the NFL last year and we managed somehow after a free agency period to actually make it worse.

We need every swinging dick that can suit up on Sundays. I don't care if they are a fricking special teamer. We do not have the luxury.

This is not like Jake Matthews blew out his knee. While I like Thomas, he was a second-third round type that becomes a six or seven with the fact that he will absolutely will not contribute in 2014.

The fifth round is a cusp round. There are still some remnants of talent there.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

We need every swinging dick that can suit up on Sundays. I don't care if they are a fricking special teamer. We do not have the luxury.

Undrafted free agents can do that shit. I just don't think there is that great of a difference between a fifth rounder and a seventh rounder. It gets to a point of being a crap shoot at that point. I'll take an injured second/third round talent over a Danny Coale, Joshua Thomas or Joseph Randle any day. This isn't about which NFL team you are, this is about doing the draft the right way.

 

[boozeman]

Undrafted free agents can do that shit. I just don't think there is that great of a difference between a fifth rounder and a seventh rounder. It gets to a point of being a crap shoot at that point. I'll take an injured second/third round talent over a Danny Coale, Joshua Thomas or Joseph Randle any day. This isn't about which NFL team you are, this is about doing the draft the right way.

I think in this draft there is. Most years, yeah you are probably right.

But your last sentence is just the real problem. It does matter what NFL team you are. A team like the Patriots can do this kind of thing, which they did for Marcus Cannon and it paid off.

Can the Cowboys? We've seen the same redshirt shit with teams that were not nearly as dependent on the draft as this one.

This draft has to be as good as the Ware/Spears/Canty/Barber/Ratliff draft. It really does.

 

[Simpleton]

I think in this draft there is. Most years, yeah you are probably right.

But your last sentence is just the real problem. It does matter what NFL team you are. A team like the Patriots can do this kind of thing, which they did for Marcus Cannon and it paid off.

Can the Cowboys? We've seen the same redshirt shit with teams that were not nearly as dependent on the draft as this one.

This draft has to be as good as the Ware/Spears/Canty/Barber/Ratliff draft. It really does.

Or else what?

We aren't winning shit with Garrett at HC anyway, I wouldn't mind burning a 5th on a redshirt guy who I would've been happy with in the 3rd or maybe even the 2nd.

 

[Smitty]

This is a guy I would've loved in the 3rd, perhaps even the 2nd depending on who was there, so considering that ACL's only take about 8 months to recover from I'd easily take him in the 6th.

I'd take him in the fricking 4th or 5th.

 

[Smitty]

We are not good enough up and down this roster to be able to afford any more of this red shirt crap more than in the last few rounds.

I don't agree. You don't want to take players with tons of question marks surrounding them, but you do anyway when they are talented enough for the round you are in (like Sean Lee in the 2nd).

This guy doesn't have an injury history that I know of. Nor does he have a degenerative knee condition like Leary, and he's a better prospect than Leary to boot.

He'd be on my radar for possible steal. If I thought the guy would be a long term starter when he heals (which I would, about this player) then I wouldn't take him off my board just due to the fact that he'll miss one season.