Logan Thomas starting to look back to his best
Commanders tight end Logan Thomas has struggled to stay healthy this season, but he showed signs against the Texans that he might be getting back to his best
Commanders tight end Logan Thomas had his best performance of the season so far against the Texans on Sunday. Thomas has had a slow start to the season while recovering from his injury last season and while also battling some smaller injuries picked up this year. He hasn’t looked quite the same as he was before his injury last year, at least not until this week.
Thomas had season high numbers against the Texans with five catches for 65 yards and most importantly, he started to look like the same Logan Thomas that developed into a security blanket on third downs with strong ability after the catch. His first catch came on a play that might appear fairly simple but actually is the type of play that makes him such a friendly target for his quarterback.
On this play, Thomas aligns to the left of the formation. He’s tasked with running a shallow cross, but first is asked to delay his release long enough to chip the edge rusher. Off the snap, Thomas shuffles out to the edge rusher and shoves him wide before then releasing into his route. The chip helped the protection by forcing the edge rusher wider and up the field, allowing left tackle Charles Leno extra time to get into his position. In the end, that edge rusher never got close to pressuring the quarterback and hardly engaged in his block with Leno.
With the first part of his assignment done, Thomas then releases over the middle on his shallow cross. He gets a step on his defender which makes him an available option for quarterback Taylor Heinicke. Heinicke feels the pressure arriving and immediately looks to Thomas as his option to get rid of the ball. He delivers a bit of a low and loopy pass, allowing the trailing defender to compete for the ball, but Thomas manages to shield the defender from the ball using his frame and secures the pass before being tackled.
It was only a four yard gain, but it's exactly the type of play this offense needs consistently to stay ahead of the chains and sustain drives. In that regard, Thomas can be a valuable asset, especially as someone that can both help the protection by chipping and giving the quarterback a quick option to throw the ball to. He did this a few times throughout this game, but on one example he showed that his explosive ability after the catch is starting to return.
This time Thomas aligns to the right, but has a relatively similar, though slightly more complex assignment as the last play. He’s still tasked with helping out protection before working a shallow crossing route, but this time his protection assignment is tougher. Instead of just chipping the defender across from him, Thomas appears responsible for chipping the safety on a safety blitz. When Heinicke sends receiver Curtis Samuel in motion across the formation, the safety rotates down into the box and then blitzes off the edge. Thomas reads the safety rotating down pre-snap and then stays in to shove him wide, just like he did with the edge rusher on the previous play. After delaying the safety, Thomas then releases into his route across the middle.
Getting out into his route quickly is vital here. Heinicke is pressured by both the safety Thomas chipped, but also a linebacker adding on after the running back stayed in to protect. Heinicke does a terrific job remaining patient and waiting until the last second to deliver his throw to Thomas, taking a hit from the linebacker as he does so. But his effort is rewarded as Thomas brings in the pass and then proceeds to turn up the field and run away from the trailing defender as he picks up plenty of additional yards after the catch. He ends up picking up 19 yards on the play which could easily have been just a one or two yard gain, or even a sack and a loss of yards.
That desire to fight for every yard was a trademark of Thomas’s game as he developed into a quality tight end in Washington, but while the desire may have still been there, the ability to elude defenders and break tackles to pick up those extra yards hasn’t quite been there for him this year until this game. It was great to see him able to move a bit more freely and do things like lowering the shoulder and running over defenders.
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