In the second quarter of his first start of the season, the Panthers young tight end made a costly mistake.
With the Panthers down 10-3, Ian Thomas dropped a beautiful pass from Kyle Allen along the right sidelines while in one-on-one coverage – in fact, a drop would have been better. Instead, the second-year tight end bobbled the ball into the air and directly into the hands of corner Damontae Kazee. Instead of a first down deep in Atlanta territory, the Panthers had turned the ball over in what was, at the time, a close game.
But instead of being angry, Allen did the opposite – after the interception, Allen went to tell Thomas he still had confidence in him. Because that’s how you help a young player grow.
“He’s going to be a great player,” Allen said. “Stuff like that is going to happen. Stuff like that has happened to me too. I’ve done some dumb stuff when things haven’t gone my way, so I know the feeling. So I just wanted to tell him, ‘listen you’re going to be a great player, we are going to keep coming to you.'”
Allen’s words of wisdom apparently worked as Thomas would redeem himself on the goalline. There weren’t many bright spots in the Panthers 40-20 loss to the Falcons on Sunday, but one of them was the production of Thomas as he provided a glimpse of what the team might have in the young tight end.
On the day, Thomas finished with five catches on 57 yards and his first touchdown catch of the season – even if he is only focused on the drops.
“It’s good for your quarterback to have faith in you,” Thomas said. “I know it is my job to catch the ball, so I really take that on myself and I appreciate him coming back to me because I told him it wouldn’t happen again, but it happened again. So, it is something to work on and build from there.”
Thomas said Panthers interim offensive coordinator Scott Turner didn’t necessarily plan to get him more involved in the offense this week, but he got the ball because he kept finding open opportunities in the defense – his nine targets in Atlanta matched the nine targets he’d had in the 12 games previous.
“It just happened that way, I was matched up against a linebacker the whole game, so I had the advantage,” Thomas said.
Thomas had his best game of the season, but he was far from satisfied. Not only does Thomas remember the critical drop in Panthers territory that could have resulted in points, but he was also critical of his overall performance after another dropped pass in the third quarter.
“I still dropped two passes, and we lost,” Thomas said. “It wasn’t a good game overall for myself or the team.”
As with any young player, there are going to be stretches of ups and downs during games and throughout the season. Panthers interim head coach Perry Fewell said Thomas will just have to work harder to address them.
“You have to deal with them,” Fewell said. “We expected more consistency – I thought that he had a really good week of prep and we expected more consistency from him as well as some of the other guys today, so we just have to back to work.”
Entering Sunday’s game, Thomas hadn’t seen much action with Greg Olsen above him on the tight end depth chart. He had just five receptions on nine targets in 12 games entering the game against the Falcons. But because of a concussion to Olsen during the third quarter of last weekend’s loss to the Redskins, Thomas saw the most action he has seen the entire year over the past three halves.
Sunday wasn’t the first time Thomas had to step in because of an Olsen injury. In relief, Thomas brought in four receptions for 24 yards, including a couple of key catches during the Panthers comeback attempt last week against Washington.
Last season as a rookie fourth-round draft pick out of Indiana, Thomas started in six games for the Panthers as he recorded 36 catches for 333 yards and two touchdowns after Olsen spent half the season in injured reserve. After the 2018 season, it appeared he was ready for a more significant role complimenting Olsen, but a preseason injury limited Thomas and with Olsen taking the majority of the snaps, Thomas simply bided his time.
With the Panthers at 5-8 on the season, there’s an expectation that Fewell will play more of the team’s younger players during the final three games of the season. With Olsen turning 35 next year and heading into the final year in his contract, these final three games could be an excellent opportunity for Thomas to show he could be a potential starter for the Panthers going forward. It’s unknown when Olsen will return this season as he remains in the concussion protocol, so Thomas could potentially start next week against the Seattle Seahawks. Meanwhile, Thomas just hopes to continue to build on his performance he had this week.
“It always feels good to catch a pass, to catch a touchdown, to help the team, Thomas said. “But there’s always up.”
