NFL Draft Profile: CB Azareye'h Thomas

Breaking down Florida State CB Azareye'h Thomas

Last week I began looking at some draft prospects the Washington Commanders might consider selecting next month. I started with defensive ends, breaking down Donovan Ezeiruaku, Nic Scourton, James Pearce Jr., and Shemar Stewart. This week I’m moving on from defensive ends to break down a few cornerbacks who could make some sense for Washington. The first corner I’m going to look at is Florida State’s Azareye’h Thomas, who is the name I’ve seen most often linked to the Commanders at 29 from the cornerback position.

Thomas stands out as a long, physical press corner. He measured in at the combine at 6-foot-1 ½, 197 pounds with long 32 ⅜ inch arms. Those arms are about the longest of any corner in the class and they help him excel in press coverage where he can reach and get his hands on guys without having to lunge at them. Having that length enables Thomas to stay very patient at the line of scrimmage, which is a stand out feature of his game.

This play is a great example of how patient Thomas can be at the line of scrimmage. Often you’ll see young corners playing press coverage fall into the trap of lunging at receivers to try and jam them at the line of scrimmage, which often leads to them being off balance and getting beat quicker. Thomas plays much smarter than that. At the snap of the ball, you can see how Thomas hardly moves his feet. He waits for the receiver to declare his intentions before then reacting off that. The receiver comes off the snap faking an inside release. Thomas doesn’t bite, and as soon as the receiver then tries to skip back outside, Thomas is ready to get his hands on him.

Thomas first strikes with his outside hand, disrupting the release and buying himself some time to get his own feet sorted out. Thomas then immediately gets his inside hand on the receiver as a follow up, establishing position and control of the route. With the receiver unable to skip past and get vertical thanks to the jam, he has to work wider to try and get around Thomas. Thomas uses this to his advantage, showing the receiver as close to the sideline as possible to make any potential throwing window incredibly tight. By the time the receiver gets to the first down marker, Thomas has already forced him almost out of bounds while still maintaining his leverage and staying on top of the route. The quarterback has no chance of making a throw and has to work elsewhere instead.

Being patient in press coverage is key to being able to play man-to-man coverage. Another key trait is being able to be physical. We saw some physicality on that play but there are better examples of his physicality.

On this play, Clemson motions out a receiving tight end outside, isolated one-on-one against Thomas. Tight ends can provide tough matchups for cornerbacks because they often are significantly bigger and can overpower them. But Thomas is a bigger corner and proves here that he can handle being more physical. The tight end looks to run a slant route off an RPO (run-pass option), but Thomas reads it well. He immediately works to get inside leverage and then latches onto the tight end with physical coverage to prevent him from getting inside. Thomas positions himself perfectly to contest any potential throw from the quarterback, who looks his way but ends up having to scramble because of the tight coverage.

With a combination of patient feet at the snap, long arms and physical coverage, Thomas can be very disruptive when playing press coverage. You can see this particularly well on rhythm and timing routes where the receiver needs to get to a certain spot at the exact right time so that his break matches up with the footwork of the quarterback. Thomas is very good at disrupting those timing routes and forcing the quarterback to either hold onto the ball or look elsewhere.