R Mason Thomas was the 40th overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft by the Kansas City Chiefs, and quite honestly, it was a huge shock to a ton of people. Thomas is by far the smallest — from a weight and arm length standpoint — defensive end chosen by the Chiefs since Steve Spagnuolo took over. There had been some trending in a direction of smaller defensive ends or at least the willingness to play them with the drafting of Felix Anudike-Uzomah and Ashton Gillotte in recent years. The pick of Thomas, however, completely bunks the trends long established by Steve Spagnuolo in the NFL… and that may be a good thing!
The Chiefs' defensive line and pass rush in particular had gotten very one-dimensional. The body types and skill sets were very similar, and they lacked depth in the position in terms of how they play. Thomas's entering the picture gives them a skill set completely unique to what they have fielded for the last seven seasons, and it might be coming at the exact right time.
Let’s jump into the film and see how R Mason Thomas’ skill set as a defensive end could be exactly what the Chiefs needed at the position.
R Mason Thomas Five Play Film Room
1) Speed in all three phases
When a player is undersized for the NFL — or any kind of physical outlier — they need some form of trump card. They need a trait or skill that is so undeniably good that their opponent has to respect and fear it in a way that overshadows their physical limitations. In this case, R Mason Thomas is on the smaller side of NFL defensive ends; there is no two ways about it, which means he needs that elite trait to not allow his opponent to take advantage of that all game long. And man, does he have that with his speed.
When talking about Thomas’ speed, it’s not just his ability to run in a straight line over a longer set distance quickly. We are talking about speed from the start of the snap to the sacking of the quarterback and everything that happens in between. To simplify that idea, we can break down the rush path into three specific parts: the get off or initial two to three steps, the turn, and the finish or the final push to the quarterback. Some players can be insanely fast at one or two phases of that path, but Thomas has rare speed throughout all three phases, which gives him that trump card referenced earlier.
It starts with his snap anticipation and processing of the first ball or player movement across from him. Some players never really get a feel for being “the first off the ball,” but it's something that seems to come naturally for Thomas. He is almost always the first defender moving off the snap, and even gets his first upfield step in the ground before some offensive linemen complete their first kick-step. The get-off phase doesn’t end there, though, as the next step or two is equally important. Thomas continues his acceleration off the line by getting to his second step quickly and covers a good bit of ground despite the lack of longer limbs. At this point, he has to make a choice to set his rush angle off that second step or third step, and it all depends on whether he is ahead of the offensive tackle’s set or not.
For Thomas, he can frequently beat the blocker off the line so quickly that he is able to just take a true speed path up the arc without having to combat the blocker. The trick to this type of pathing is to continue to be fast through the second phase, the corner. Players like George Karlaftis are actually very explosive off the line of scrimmage as well, but he has to slow his pace through the corner, or he’ll end up running himself out of the play. Thomas has the ability to keep accelerating into the corner and maintain his speed as he flips his hips towards the quarterback. His leverage and lower center of gravity help with this, but it’s a rare combination of hip fluidity and balance that pushes it over the top. Now it’s just time to finish the play.
This is where Thomas arguably moves the most explosively at any point of the rush, which is saying something. Once he clears the block and then the blocker, he turns on another gear. His burst out of his turn is exceptional and allows him to close the distance to the quarterback in a flash. Even when quarterbacks can “feel” him winning on the edge — granted, he gets there so fast at times, the quarterback is still actively finishing their final step in their pass drop — they don’t really have time to climb the pocket or scramble away. Thomas’ ability to carry elite speed from the start of the snap to the end of the play is a skill the Chiefs haven’t really seen since Dee Ford in 2018.
