The 49ers are Shopping Solomon Thomas and it Seems Like He'd Be Perfect for the Patriots

And so another piece of the 2019 NFL Draft falls into place. The fact the Niners are talking to teams about Solomon Thomas, the 3rd overall pick just two years ago, tells you they’ve made up their minds about taking Nick Bosa with the 2nd. Which should mean the Jets will follow with Quinnen Williams – because even they can’t be stupid enough not to – and then it’s on. The Raiders pick after that and what Mike Mayock and Jon Gruden will do is anyone’s guess. Let the games begin. May the odds be ever in your favor.

Which brings me to the more pressing matter of Solomon Thomas. And the much, much more pressing matter of whether he could come to New England. Personally (and with me what the Patriots do in terms of roster building is always deeply, deeply personal), I’d love to see it happen. Like Imentioned earlier this week, the Pats are sitting on 12 picks, plus their entire rookie class from last year (with one notable exception) who were injured are coming back as redshirt freshmen. So 12 drafted rookies will not make the roster. Deals will be swung like Trader Bill’s large, bell clapper-like dong. And as we learned in the Jimmy Garoppolo and Trent Brown trades, Belichick has a willing partner in John Lynch.

Here’s what I said about Thomas in a 2017 Draft Preview:

The Next Great Tweener:

Solomon Thomas, Stanford.6-3, 273 lb, 4.69
Compares to the active ingredients in: Aaron Donald
Like [Aaron] Donald, there’s no one claiming this kid can’t play tackle football. Or doubting his athleticism, since his dad played college basketball and his mom was a tracklete and he was genetically engineered to be a pro athlete. Where scouts part company is on the question of “Where?” He’s generally listed among the edge players. But Stanford had him play mostly inside, like Donald. Personally, I’m riding into battle under the sigil of House Inside. He strikes me as a 4-3 one gap player who’s quick off the line and has great hand-fighting technique, but not so great out in space. He also shows non-stop hustle and will excel in that confined spaces role that made Warren Sapp a millionaire, hooker-beating Hall of Famer.

Our relationship is built on trust so I won’t pretend to have been glued to the defensive line play of the 49ers the last two years to see whether or not he’s lived up to the hype. I can tell you Pro Football Focus graded him as just the third best edge defender on his own team, 63rd overall in the league. But I’m willing to gamble with some draft capital that it has more to do with Thomas’ tweener status and how he’s been utilized than him being over drafted.

He just seems like a good fit for a team that not only lives to shuffle versatile D-linemen back and forth along the formation from play to play, but who just a few years ago took a sub-300 pound tackle in the 1st round in Dominique Easley. I mean, in terms of body type, this kid is almost identical to Michael Bennett, whom they not only traded for, they re-upped with an extension. So it makes sense they’d like a version of Bennett that’s 10 years younger.

And not all that expensive:

The Pats have a recent history of obtaining the kinds of high draft picks they never lose enough games to draft for themselves. (Or because the NFL takes their 1st rounders away. Don’t get me started.) Players like Phillip Dorsett (29th in 2015), Jonathan Cooper (7th, 2013) Stephon Gilmore, Michael Floyd, Shea McClellin and Josh Gordon (10th, 13th, 19th and 1st in the Supplemental Draft, 2012). So taking Solomon Thomas off the hands of a motivated seller, either with one of their mid-round picks or the kind of deal where they slide back a few spots (say, from 32 to 36), just feels like the perfect Patriots kind of move.

There’s the opening bell. The trading floor is officially open. Let’s make this happen.