Why I believe we got a steal in Chase Thomas.

Footage of him vs. ND

I like watching this videos (there are a ton more of them by the way) more than the highlight videos because you get a larger picture of what you're actually getting. Even the best players make mistakes and have bad plays.

What I've seen from watching several of these videos:

1. He's extremely versatile. He rushes from the outside, lines up in the middle, puts his hand in the ground, and even splits out wide into coverage almost as a nickel back, and doesn't do a bad job at it either.

2. He's smart, and his instincts are great. This makes up for his lack of straight speed. He doesn't make too many missteps. When he does, it hurts, because he just can't get there in time.

3. He does well on outside contain and reads the read/option very well. He doesn't over pursue often, and it gives him the ability to play clean up. He'll be a real asset in limiting the amount of cut back runs.

4. He's disruptive, and even when he can't get near the qb or get off of his block, he creates a problem within the play, sometimes drawing double teams, and it allows his teammates to make a play.

Some of the negatives:

1) He can jog on the field at times when he thinks he's out of the play, and maybe he is, but you can never be certain. That's correctable though.

2) His tackling technique can be randomly sloppy, even though it's sound most of the time.

I'm really excited about this guy. I think he'll see plenty of playing time this year.