Dylan Thompson

http://www.nfl.com/draft/2015/profiles/dylan-thompson?id=2552571

6’3″
218LBS.

ANALYSIS

STRENGTHS

Adequate height with good bulk on his frame. Recognizes when to take a deep shot and is decisive in doing so. Puts some pepper on his throws. Able to throw the deep out to the field side.

WEAKNESSES

Footwork is an absolute mess. Has issues getting feet set on many throws and compounds issue by short-arming throw. Inaccurate, with tendency to sail the ball or throw behind receiver. Below average leading receivers to give them a chance to pick up yards after catch.

DRAFT PROJECTION Priority free agent

BOTTOM LINE One-year starter in the SEC with adequate size. Poor footwork and substantial accuracy and ball placement issues have him tabbed as a draft reject on several draft boards, according to scouts.

===

Dylan Thompson
Height: 6-2.5
Weight: 212
School: South Carolina

http://www.draftinsider.net/reports/2015/QB/Dylan-Thompson

Bio: Moved into the starting role last season then set a South Carolina record with a conference leading 3564 yards passing. Also threw 26 TDs.

Positive: Patient intermediate range passer who accurately places throws. Sits in the pocket, scans the field and goes through progressions. Elusive with the ability to scramble away from defenders, buys time and improvises when plays breakdown. Quickly locates the open receiver, effectively times his throws and does not have receivers waiting on the ball. Knows where his receivers are and accurate making the throw on the move. Possesses a relatively quick release.

Negative: Lacks great pocket stature. Cannot drive deep throws.

Analysis: Thompson did a terrific job the only year he started for South Carolina and displayed enough accuracy to warrant space on a practice squad.

Camp arm.

(Which is pronounced “kah-parhm” with emphasis on the 2nd syllable.)

If something happens to one of the other 3, then, he becomes the 3rd by default and runs the scout team.

If something happens to one of the other 3 during the season, he is a phone call away.

Meanwhile Foles is catching up on his gardening.

…

PFF: CAM THOMAS, NT, SAN DIEGO CHARGERS

from 2012

In 2009, the San Diego Chargers earned the No. 2 seed in the AFC Playoffs. Thanks in part to a porous run defense, though, they were one-and-done on their home turf, where the New York Jets gained 169 yards on 39 carries on their way to a three-point win.

Part of the run defense woes were due to long-time Pro Bowl run-stuffer Jamal Williams missing all but the first game of the year. Meanwhile, the only two other defensive linemen to grade positively against the ground attack were Antonio Garay and Andre Coleman–who combined for a mere 67 snaps that season (including the playoffs).

Concerns

With his 6-foot-4, 330-pound frame, Thomas proved difficult to move in the run game during his college career, despite never putting up grand numbers–which was no doubt affected by the Tarheels’ non-attacking defensive strategy. However, there’s no hiding the fact that Thomas’ college stats in 2008 (34 tackles including 3.5 for losses, one sack) were much more favorable than his numbers in 2009 (15 tackles including 2.5 for losses, no sacks) and scouts lobbed pre-draft complaints about his conditioning/motivation, and his non-existent pass rushing resumé.

Despite a solid Senior Bowl performance (which included a sack) that led Mike Mayock to suggest Thomas wouldn’t make it past the second round, the prototypical nose tackle wound up falling to the fifth; a fall likely related to his one-sack tally in the last two years of his college career. Still, the fact that the Chargers traded up to get him suggests they weren’t prepared to let him drop any further. With former Chicago Bear Antonio Garay viewed as a temporary replacement, what with him coming off the Jets practice squad after recovering from a nasty leg injury suffered two years prior, the Chargers hoped Thomas could be Williams’ eventual successor. They released Williams before the 2010 season began.
Rookie Year

Thomas started his rookie year in a rotation with Garay and Ogemdi Nwagbuo at NT, and did not appear until Week 5’s matchup with the division rival Raiders in Oakland. Despite being labeled as more of a space-eater than actual tackler, he earned a +1.9 run defense grade in just eight running plays, while recording three tackles and a stop–not to mention preventing Michael Bush from reaching the first down marker on a 2nd-and-3. Despite this solid performance, Thomas saw only 66 more snaps that season, perhaps a mistake considering Nwagbou, who started the year with +1.3 and +1.1 overall showings, struggled to make an impact later in the season. Some of this was due to Garay’s breakout year (+27.9), one, no doubt, that neither the Chargers nor anyone else saw coming.

Overall, Thomas finished the year with a +0.6 run defense grade, but his performance as a pass rusher further validated scouts’ concerns about his ability to generate pressure. On 38 rushes, he could only come away with two sacks, a pressure, and a -2.6 rating, with both sacks coming courtesy of Antwan Barnes pressuring the QB into his grasp.

A Difference Maker in Year Two

In 2011, Thomas gained a clear grip on the backup nose tackle spot before seeing his role expand as the season continued. After a respectable outing in a losing effort in New England, Thomas really shone in a Week 3 game at home against the division rival Chiefs, beating Casey Wiegmann (our 14th overall rated center last year) on numerous occasions. Thomas helped give Wiegmann his worst performance of the year by beating him for two stops in the run game and a hit on the quarterback. What really showed Thomas’ dominance were two plays that won’t show in his stats: carrying Weigmann up the line of scrimmage on a 2-yard run to close the lane with 3:33 left in the third quarter (resulting in Thomas Jones running into the lineman’s back and allowing Jacque Cesaire and Travis LaBoy to make the stop), and forcing Weigmann to commit a holding penalty on another rush with 55 seconds left in that same quarter.

With Nwagbuo cut early in the season and defensive end Luis Castillo going down with an injury in Week 1, a series of good early-season showings paved Thomas’ way into a variety of formations. In some four-man fronts he would line up at DRT or DLT, while sometimes playing right or left end in two- or three-linemen alignments. He found some success in these shifts, especially in a Week 16 blowout loss in Detroit where, as a defensive end on a three-man line and a defensive tackle on four-man line (in addition to his base NT backup role), he was able to earn himself a season-best +1.9 run defense grade, which included making a stop for a loss on a 2nd-and-goal run from his own 5-yard line. He even dropped into coverage once in that game.

Thomas would finish the year with a solid +5.8 overall grade, actually outplaying incumbent Garay in run defense (+6.2 to Garay’s +1.5) with 10 running stops on 166 plays. He also occupied double teams and clogged running lanes on a number of occasions without making the tackle himself. Along the way, he began to shed the ‘no threat to the QB’ label, registering four sacks, three QB hits (including hits on Tom Brady and Carson Palmer that don’t show up on the stat sheet because of unrelated penalties) and 13 pressures.

Though he does need to work on limiting penalties himself (he was flagged five times last year), new defensive coordinator John Pagano would be wise to give Thomas more than 395 snaps and continue to exploit his versatility.

===

San Diego Chargers Bench NT Cam Thomas for Sean Lissemore

Dec 11,2013

Cam Thomas has been moved down the depth chart at Nose Tackle for the San Diego Chargers. This comes as little surprise to viewers of the team, as he has been the centerpiece of a defensive line that has been very disappointing this season.

While the Chargers defensive secondary has been historically bad, it is also true that the run defense has been terrible and ranks dead last in DVOA as well. That is largely attributable to the poor play of the defensive line. Thomas has posted a mediocre Pro Football Focus score of -5.8, 56th out of 69 defensive tackles who have played at least 25% of their team’s snaps.

Thomas has been taking about two-thirds of the snaps in a rotation with Sean Lissemore, who will be taking over the starting duties. Lissemore has been solid this season, especially in the run game, posting a PFF score of +5.7.

This move may work out being beneficial to both men, as Thomas has posted his best two games this season coming off the bench and playing about one-third of the team’s snaps. He also succeeded in that role being Aubrayo Franklin last year.

This season is the last of the rookie contract Thomas signed in 2010, signalling that this could possibly be the last few games for Thomas as a San Diego Charger. Lissemore is still under the contract he originally signed with the Cowboys before being traded to the Chargers through 2016, earning a cheap $1 million in 2014.

I don’t have a “narrow perspective” about Hill’s email scandal. Anyone else would have been prosecuted by now. GUARANTEED.

I wasn’t discussing that issue, and in fact, really don’t care about it either way.

.

bnw wrote:

zn wrote:

Ozoneranger wrote:

64% UK. Most likely a lot of Scot. And my middle name is Scott. My mother’s maiden name is Scottish.

Well here’s the consolation. You can identify as Scottish, who had many wars with the English, some of which they won (partly).

A true redcoat is English. So if you drift in the Scots direction, you are not a redcoat.

Scotland just had a vote and they went English. So he’s as limey as the rest of them. Sorry O3.

No the Scottish aren’t English.

Scotland agreed that they, along with Wales and England, are British.

Not the same thing.

.

bnw wrote:

zn wrote:

bnw wrote:

Did you really say “the left critiques both parties”? Too fucking funny. Honestly thats pee the pants funny.

Well, see, my guess is, you think dems are “the left.” Which is a typical mistake in narrow-band america. (Not in the rest of the world.) That’s a typical mainstream trap some get caught in.

The left is invisible in the USA, they don’t HAVE a major party, but it exists. And they are not dems.

Read the people you’re posting with. Sooner or later, it will become clear.

Most of us here are not dems, and this goes way way back. As I said lefties don’t have a major party in the USA and as I said yes we critique both. This goes way back. For years and years. Here on this board, most of the core participants have known one another more than 15 years. When I say the lefties on this board critique both parties, I know whereof I speak. Have an open mind and follow the discussion. Don’t be so quick to dismiss what frankly you don’t know yet.

BS and you know it. There are smaller leftist parties to the left of the democrat party leadership but they remain insignificant. However the democrat party is left as in its voters are left of its leadership and these voters have the numbers to elect candidates throughout the nation at the state and national level. The Bernie phenomenon shows this well. (The same thing Trump has shown within the republican party from the other end of the political spectrum.) Why its voters continue to vote for leadership that throws them a social issue bone once in a while to chew on but screws them over on jobs and purchasing power while fostering dreater dependence only democrat voters can answer. that. I suspect most don’t look past the (D) behind the candidates name.

Yeah I said major party and I meant it. I was referring to the dominance of the republocrats and demicans. Look back at me on this board discussing the greens. I know about the small parties…they’re not major. Hence, no major parties. That was the whole point.

One tenet of actual leftists, speaking for ourselves instead of being described by an outsider, is that to us, there is nothing “left” about the democratic party. Hear that, and you will begin to have a better understanding of the people you’re posting with. In europe the american dems would basically be right-wing moderates. That’s how I see them. They are as a rule better on social issues than the right, which is frankly (in my eyes) still stuck in the late 19th century, but that’s about it.

As for the rest of your things…even though it’s supposed to have this “listen up here’s the truth” tone to it…I still just see it as one narrow perspective among others. It’s also an invitation to debate, but, for me personally, I am just not engaged enough. I am pretty sporadic about that kind of thing. Others may feel inclined to engage.

That may be the 101 take for a while.

bnw wrote:

Did you really say “the left critiques both parties”? Too fucking funny. Honestly thats pee the pants funny.

Well, see, my guess is, you think dems are “the left.” Which is a typical mistake in narrow-band america. (Not in the rest of the world.) That’s a typical mainstream trap some get caught in.

The left is invisible in the USA, they don’t HAVE a major party, but it exists. And they are not dems.

Read the people you’re posting with. Sooner or later, it will become clear.

Most of us here are not dems, and this goes way way back. As I said lefties don’t have a major party in the USA and as I said yes we critique both. This goes way back. For years and years. Here on this board, most of the core participants have known one another more than 15 years. When I say the lefties on this board critique both parties, I know whereof I speak. Have an open mind and follow the discussion. Don’t be so quick to dismiss what frankly you don’t know yet.

Steelers notebook: At nose tackle, Cam Thomas getting it now

August 20, 2015

Cam Thomas played nose tackle in a one-gap defensive system for the San Diego Chargers during his first four seasons in the NFL. When Thomas signed with the Steelers last season he was asked to play mostly defensive end in a two-gap system.

The results were not what the Steelers were looking for. Thomas, a part-time starter, ranked 158th out of 159 3-4 defensive ends, according to Pro Football Focus.

The Steelers are playing more one-gap technique along the defensive line this season, and Thomas has taken the majority of his reps at nose guard during training camp. The moves seem to suit Thomas, whose play in practice and the first two preseason games has been markedly better.

“I feel more comfortable,” Thomas said Wednesday afternoon. “I don’t like that it took me a year to get it, but I get it now.”

Under previous defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau, Steelers linemen exclusively played two-gap technique, which means they were responsible for the gaps to their right and left. In a one-gap system the linemen are responsible for only one gap, and they can be more aggressive.

After two preseason games, Thomas is the No. 3 nose tackle in the Pro Football Focus rankings. He’s not going to push starter Steve McLendon for the starting job, but his resurgence gives the Steelers some options with playing time.

“I feel like I was playing a lot better at the two-gap, not that it was perfect, but I felt like I was doing better there with Steve teaching me how to do it,” Thomas said. “It really doesn’t matter, one-gap or two-gap, you still have to play a gap. I know I have to be versatile.”

New defensive coordinator Keith Butler said Thomas must be able to maintain his level of play when the competition gets stiffer, but he likes what he has seen through the first few weeks of camp.

“He’s been pretty good for a lot of it because he’s getting a lot of reps,” Butler said. “He’s getting some time against some guys he’s not going to see during the regular season. He’ll see some better guys in the season. He’s taken advantage of it a couple of times. Then a couple of times in games we’d like to see him be better. He got knocked off the ball in the goal line [against Jacksonville] so he can learn from the experience too.”