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| Those tattoos are NFL ready. |
To be completely honest, the first tweet that I saw only mentioned Thomas by his last name. So when I read "Oregon's Thomas to declare for the NFL draft" or whatever the headline was, I thought the Thomas being referred to was receiver DeAnthony Thomas. And then I was like 'wait, he hasn't been in college long enough to leave for the NFL, right?' Took me a minute or so to figure out that it was Darron Thomas who was the one making the jump to the NFL.
When I first heard this news, I thought 'what's Thomas thinking by doing this?' It was just confusing to me I guess. Don't get me wrong, Thomas is a good football player and a good quarterback too. And although he's a very effective QB in Chip Kelly's offense, he's never been hailed for his accuracy, arm strength or throwing mechanics. These traits are usually the traits that transfer over to the NFL game most often for quarterbacks.
I don't think that Darron Thomas will even get drafted, unfortunately. The offense that he ran in college, which he excelled at, does not exist anywhere in the NFL. Ty Duffy over at Big Lead Sports doesn't think he'll get drafted. Neither does the Oregonian's John Canzano. I'm not rooting for the guy to fail in the least. It's just the harsh reality that, at least right now, Thomas doesn't do any of the things well that are high priorities on what NFL scouts are looking for.
That's why I am still surprised that he's serious about declaring for the draft. I mean, he can improve...anyone can improve. I can see Darron Thomas having a Dennis Dixon-like career. And I'm not saying that because they're both athletic, black quarterbacks. I'm saying that because they both ran similar (if not the exact same) offenses at Oregon and do the same things well. And I guess when you look at it, Dennis Dixon is making a good enough living for himself, so a Dixon-like career is not a bad thing. If this past season in the NFL taught us anything, it's that you don't have to have perfect throwing mechanics to keep your head above water in the NFL. Case in point: Tim Tebow. (Although even with all the things Tebow did this season, he's going to have to get a lot better to solidify himself as a starting QB for years to come.) So there's that.
But Thomas is more than likely going to have to take the long way around to make it as a quarterback in the NFL. Not getting drafted will force a guy to do it that way. And who knows, he may impress a team or two at the combine and test well. Then his journey will get a little bit easier.
One thing that I haven't mentioned yet here, is the personal reasons Thomas may be making this decision for. There's the money. No one can blame a kid for jumping to the NFL for the money. Hell, I'd surely do it if I was in his position. Even if Thomas doesn't get drafted and becomes a rookie free agent, he'll most likely get a shot with some team, and that means at least half a million bucks minimum salary or something close to that. Not too shabby if you ask me. There are also a few other reasons that are being rumored as why Thomas is making the jump now. Comcast SportsNet's Dwight Jaynes writes about the "rumors" here. The main rumor is pretty interesting.
Jaynes writes, "The rumor first: I've heard from Eugene sources that Coach Chip Kelly called Thomas in after the Rose Bowl and told him the quarterback job is open this spring and he'd have to win it from sophomore-to-be Bryan Bennett. Thomas, upset that he'd have to prove himself again, is bailing. At least that's the way the rumor goes and it's unsubstantiated."
But still, it's still a bit of a head scratcher for me. But I wish the kid all the best. He might be well served, though, if he stopped comparing himself to Cam Newton. That's just going to set him up to fail. Cam Newton and Thomas played in the same national championship game at the end of last season, but that's pretty much where the similarities stop.
