For N.F.L. Draft, the Biggest (XXXXXXL) Sleeper - Walter Thomas

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/sports/football/25nfl.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=football



Walter Thomas, a 370-pound tackle, can do flips and cartwheels.

By LEE JENKINS
Published: April 25, 2007

GALVESTON, Tex., April 21 — On the edge of the Texas Gulf is a 370-pound football player who can execute a perfect forward flip.

Jessica Kourkounis for The New York Times;
Walter Thomas, 21, can bench-press 475 pounds and squat 800.
When he lands, the ground trembles.

The player’s name is Walter Thomas, and as he kicked his size 16 feet overhead Saturday morning, onlookers studied the sculpted giant with curiosity and awe. It was the kind of reaction Thomas usually elicits from professional football scouts.

“I feel like I’m a big secret,” Thomas said. “The secret of the draft.”

The National Football League draft, which begins Saturday, does not really have secrets anymore. Prospects are timed and tested, interviewed and investigated, over and over again. Entire dossiers are prepared for second-string players.

Thomas is as close as modern football can come to an old-fashioned sleeper. In the past two years, his only playing experience was at Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia, Miss.
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Big Walt, as he is known, is a 6-foot-5 defensive tackle who wears a size XXXXXXL jersey. He bench presses 475 pounds and squats 800 pounds. Weight lifters at the Galveston Health and Racquet Club stop their workouts to watch him.

Football teams everywhere are filled with big men, but many of them can barely move. Thomas has run the 40-yard dash in 4.9 seconds, faster than some N.F.L. tight ends. He is the rare tackle who can catch a running back from behind.

“The guy is a dadgum Russian gymnast,” said Randy Pippin, the head coach at Northwest Mississippi.

Thomas’s flexibility has become part of his lore. He does handstands and handsprings, broad jumps and cartwheels. When he gets excited, he will do a back flip.

“I never thought a body that big could flip in the air,” said Ron Holmes, who coached Thomas at Ball High School in Galveston. “I wouldn’t have believed it unless I’d seen it with my own two eyes.”
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N.F.L. scouts, always on the lookout for that unique blend of size and agility, were seduced by a dancing goliath. This month, Thomas was ranked as the 15th-best defensive tackle in the draft. He hopes to pattern himself after the N.F.L. tackles Ted Washington (6-5, 365 pounds) of the Cleveland Browns and Jamal Williams (6-3, 348) of the San Diego Chargers.

“He is definitely a topic of conversation right now,” said Gil Brandt, former vice president for player personnel for the Dallas Cowboys, who is now an analyst for NFL.com. “A lot of people are talking about him.”
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As a prospect, Thomas is intriguing because of both his baggage and his potential. In the two games he did play last season, his numbers were mind-blowing: 16 tackles, 9 tackles for a loss and 4 sacks.

“You absolutely cannot run at him,” said Les Miles, the Louisiana State University coach, who recruited Thomas to Oklahoma State. “You have to go in another direction.”

Thomas cannot expect to be picked until the second day of the draft — rounds four through seven — but he should immediately become one of the biggest players in the league, and probably the biggest player on his new team.

Thomas has always been the largest guy in the room. In the fifth grade, he was barred from Pop Warner games in Galveston because parents felt he had an unfair advantage. By the time he entered Austin Middle School, he was pushing 300 pounds.
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Growing up, Thomas was somewhat self-conscious about his size, so he befriended the smallest kids in school. They played a game called “Cut the Cake,” in which they found the biggest building in town and raced each other around it.

Today, Thomas still has many of the same friends, and few of them weigh more than 150 pounds. He could bench-press three of them at a time.

“That’s where I got my speed,” Thomas said. “I had to keep up with all those little guys.”

To demonstrate, Thomas took off his size 16 sneakers, slid into a white tank top and did one of his forward flips on the grass next to a beachfront apartment building. He stuck the landing. The expression on his face was part grimace and part grin.

A man watching from his apartment balcony came running. The man wore an Ohio State T-shirt and had many questions. Who is this specimen? Does he play football? Would he be interested in going to college at Ohio State?

But Thomas was already in his Expedition, driving down Seawall Boulevard, blasting music by the rapper Slim Thug, another performer who is not particularly slim.
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I have been wanting this guy since I saw him on an HBO special. He would be the best fit for our 3-4 defense. He is a big 370 not a fat 370 and yes that is his playing weight. Also he is quick for a 300 pounder, lightning quick for a guy past 350 pounds. He might not do as many 225 reps as sopme guys but he is a power lifter and strong as an ox. Raw, yes but the low price we would pay, versus the high upside he can have is worth the risk. Worth any risk.

Yes he has some character issues but as we saw last year with our 3rd round pick (mistake), character won't help you on the field.

 

At one time he would have been a sixth or seventh round pick but after his pro-day workout he will be a fourth or fith rounder.