Cam Thomas Film Review (Bonus: Best Available FAs)
How Cam Thomas can help the Chiefs right way + other available players who could do the same.
Late on Monday night, the Kansas Chiefs reached a trade agreement with the Arizona Cardinals to trade a 2025 7th round pick for defensive end Cam Thomas. Thomas has been a 3rd round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft but had fallen out of favor with a new defensive scheme in the Cardinals and was on the verge of being waived.
The Chiefs hadn’t been in love the way their defensive end room had been looking - see the rumors of interest in Emannuel Ogbah - leading up to this season and didn’t want to risk a waiver wire situation that they likely lose. They end up making a trade of a late day 3 pick for a DE that had shown early career promise.
Let’s take a dive into Cam Thomas’ film and see what he can bring to the Chiefs! After, we’ll just note some names that were recently cut that could be worth keeping an eye for the Chiefs.
Cam Thomas Film Review
Cam Thomas is a 6’4” 270lb defensive end who found himself out of position and on the bottom end of an Arizona Cardinals edge rush rotation. It was unfortunate for Thomas who had a promising rookie season as more of a traditional 4-3 defensive end. Under new leadership, the scheme shifted away from his strengths and while he wasn’t a bad player in his second year, he wasn’t very impactful when on the field.
The Chiefs are certainly leaning on the flashes he showed as a rookie where he posted a pass run win rate of 16%. It was a relatively limited sample size - just 155 pass rush attempts - but there was something there. His motor combined with a solid first step, great body control, and ever improving hand technique led to him being a disruptive player.