Run Blocking and Pass Protection
Last season, Ian Thomas showed real progress as a blocker as the season went on, and while he still had room to grow, there was at least a show of growth. While it was on very, very limited snaps, he was suitably mixed against the Falcons, as while there was at least one snap where he did a nice job of keeping his weight evenly distributed, extended his arms well and got nice inside hand placement:
There were also a couple of snaps where he would have done a lot better to have used his arms rather than just running head-down into where he thinks a defender might be:
He only saw a couple of snaps in pass protection, and while he was a little slow to get his hands up, he at least looked like he knew what he was doing:
And while he did give up a sack on the other play, he actually didn’t get beat as much as guided the defender around what he likely thought was the pocket, only to find Kyle Allen right there:
This clearly is a really small sample size, and Thomas needs to get some more reps as the season goes on for the Panthers to know what they have in him with more confidence going into next season, but everything he showed on Sunday was that of a player who is continuing to get better and who can be a significant part of this offense going forward, even if there is still a lot of room for growth given his physical traits and his apparent rate of development thus far.
It might not exactly be cause for celebration, but Ian Thomas’s play was, for the most part, something of a silver lining in a game without a lot of positives – Thomas’ play will be something to watch for over the next three weeks.
