Colts Rookie Corner Kevin Thomas FINALLY Placed On Injured Reserve
by Brad Wells on Aug 30, 2010 2:39 PM EDT
in 2010 Colts News
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PrintRookie corner Kevin Thomas injured his knee in one of the first organized practices for rookies way back in May. Since then, we've know his 2010 season was finished before it started. However, the Colts have kept him on the team's roster since despite everyone and their mother knowing Thomas is d.o.n.e. for 2010.
Mike Chappell of the Indy Star offered this reasoning for Thomas' status:
Yes, Thomas counts against the 80-player active roster, and it's very likely he'll miss his rookie season after suffering a knee injury during a rookie minicamp. But to place him on the season-ending injured reserve list, the Colts must waive him, which makes him available to any team. The Colts don't want to lose a third-round draft pick to another team. My guess is they will wait until rosters are cut to 53 and waive him. It's less likely a team will claim him if they have to include him on its 53-player roster. Once Thomas clears waivers, the Colts will put him on their IR list.
Well, today it seems the Colts did not need to waive Thomas before IRing him. He was finally placed on the Injured Reserve list, trimming the Colts roster down to 75 players before Tuesday's deadline.
Thomas continues a trend of bad draft selections for Bill Polian in the third round. Disappointments like Quinn Pitcock, Dante Hughes, Gilbert Gardner, and Sweet Pea Burns were all third rounders. However, current starters Philip Wheeler (3rd round, 2008) and Jerraud Powers (3rd round, 2009) have played well in recent seasons.
Thomas had a tendency to land on the injury list often in college, making his selection by the Colts this year all the more puzzling. We certainly hope he recovers and plays corner for this team for many seasons, but knee injuries like Thomas' are not easy to overcome. Just ask Michael Coe and Marlin Jackson.
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It's more than the roster
My understanding is they could have IR’ed him at any time but putting a player on IR means you have to pay him all year. Probably the Colts wanted to see the other rookie corners in pre-season games before making a final decision on whether to IR Thomas or waive him. Either Polian & Co are still high on Thomas or not so high on their other CB prospects, or both.
"The best defensive player is the sideline." - Trevor Pryce, on how to stop Peyton Manning
no way this has to do with paying him
I don’t know the exact rules but I’m pretty sure if they cut him after being hurt prior to a contract being signed he would have gotten an injury settlement that would have been about what he would have expected to make.
If the Colts didn’t do this they would never get a rookie draft pick to a rookie mini-camp ever again. They don’t sign those guys until right before training camp but want them with the team long before that.
Agents don’t forget you screwing their players, and I’d guess those players talk to others who are thinking about playing for a team.
Wheeler played well?
Not trying to knock ya too hard there BBS, but really? I guess comparable to the rest of the third-round trainwreck, yes, he’s played well. But comparable to other NFL players, he hasn’t.
by Collin McCollough on Aug 30, 2010 3:11 PM EDT reply actions
^^^This is true^^^
I am with ya GoBigBlue88. I have been saying all off season, that Pat Angerer is gonna make a strong push for Wheelers job. All I have heard is,“Wheeler got better throughout the year, Wheeler is a starter etc.” I like Wheeler, dont want to see him fail, but, we drafted a linebacker in the second round. That’s a significant pick, especially in the Bill Polian era. Polian has not drafted a LB in the 1st or 2nd rounds since the 2000 draft, when we picked Rob Morris and Marcus Washington, in rounds 1 and 2.
If Russia attacked Turkey from the rear, Do you think Greece would help?
I think BBS just missed a comma and a few more words
He meant “Wheeler played, well that’s what some called it.”
Actually, Wheeler did show some signs of life but his light isn’t turning on anywhere near as fast as Session’s did.
LOL!
"We ARE going to our own private island, Chris: it's called the State Fucking Fair!"
by naptown_ninja on Aug 30, 2010 6:03 PM EDT up reply actions
Wheeler's "friendly fire" record
is not looking good. Seems like he’s always diving/falling onto the back of his teamates’ legs, sticking his helmet where it doesn’t belong (like Brackett’s hand), piling on after the play and endangering his own guys. A little reckless perhaps?
"We ARE going to our own private island, Chris: it's called the State Fucking Fair!"
by naptown_ninja on Aug 30, 2010 6:09 PM EDT up reply actions
I don't think it's any more or less than any other linebacker in the league.
And anyway, how do you avoid that sort of thing when you’re on a gang-tackling defence?
Anonymity breeds inhumanity. In simpler terms, don't be a troll.
"Thomas continues a trend of bad draft selections for Bill Polian in the third round."
Nope. he isnt a bust yet BBS
Bust?
Bust is too strong a term. Right now, Thomas is a disappointment, just like Pitcock, Hughes, etc. For a team that heavily relies on the draft because they are so top heavy, losing a player like Thomas hurts.
SB Nation's Indianapolis Colts blogger at Stampede Blue and editor of SB Nation Indiana.
confusing logic
so, if it hurts to lose a player like Thomas … how could that player have been a bad draft selection? because he got injured?
I believe I understand what you mean, but I’m assuming that there are a lot of folks who may be turned off & see your logic as twisted when you generalize Thomas as continuing /the 3rd round “trend of bad draft selections”. I’ll withhold my personal opinion on the rookie CB as a bad draft choice until he’s, you know, actually on the field.
now, if next season comes around and he’s still not on the field … well that’s another story.
in order to settle this argument
There are 2 implied statements in that quote neither of which I’ve ever seen “proven”. The first is that the picks that you mention are bad picks (being disappointing to you doesn’t count as your expectations may be the problem).
For a pick to be bad it must perform worse than an “average” draft pick from that part of the draft. I haven’t seen conclusive data about that but scanning other teams typically called “good” drafters I get the idea that part time contributors are what you get in third round (I looked at Baltimore and the Packers in the Polian era as a for instance).
The second assumption is that there is a trend at all. Polian has had 14 3rd round picks with the Colts. He got at least 3 multi-year starters with those picks (Powers, Wheeler, Kieaho) and others who got significant playing time. There were a couple I don’t remember making the team either. Doesn’t seem definitive enough to call it a trend.
You know,
I’ve talked with Kevin a bit, and thus far consider him anything but a disappointment. He is, to my limited observation, every bit as focused and dedicated to returning and contributing to this team as a Bob Sanders or Marlin Jackson. Both of those guys continued to be team leaders and very active in meeting rooms and film study, and Kevin is staying similarly engaged. He’s working out the knee and putting in time in the weight room. He’s doing everything he should be doing to validate the team’s confidence in drafting him.
Now, whether Kevin stays healthy for an extended period of time, or doesn’t lose his speed after his rehab is completed, is anyone’s guess. He seems like a real good kid, and the talent is undeniable. Shitting on Polian for the pick is a disservice to Thomas, ultimately, and one which he doesn’t deserve.
All that said, I’ve got an interview with and story on Kevin Thomas that’ll hopefully be forthcoming in the next week.
Anonymity breeds inhumanity. In simpler terms, don't be a troll.
I would venture that perhaps the phrasing is the issue. Maybe a more accurate statement would have been “continues a trend of bad luck with draft selections for Bill Polian in the third round”. This I could see as more accurate in keeping with the idea of a trend. Considering that you skirt the line of contradiction by offering Wheeler and Powers as successes (thus relatively negating the previously implied statement of trend), and, as already discussed, Thomas has yet to play, so it’s also difficult to determine his actual value as a selection. Each of the players listed above seemed to be disappointing for various reasons (Gardner = Talent, Pitcock = Work Ethic/Addiction, Thomas = Injury, etc.), and so it seems a bit harsh to pin it all on Polian’s ability to assess talent in the 3rd round. That said, I wouldn’t mind if one of these drafts he decided to trade our 3rd round pick for a higher 2nd or possibly 1st rounder. He seems to hit more in those areas. Or hell, just let him have more undrafted free agents to choose from. I would say those picks tend to heavily make up for his misses in the third round.
How is Thomas ALREADY a bad draft pick?
You haven’t seen him play yet. This personal vendetta against Bill Polian is so taxing for all of us readers.
Unless of course...
Next year he returns from injury and goes on to become a perennial Pro Bowler in a sixteen year NFL career. But wait, we don’t have any idea if that will happen yet. So, actually, right now we don’t know whether the decision was bad or not. The point is, you can’t determine something so “permanent” as calling a player a bust or a “disappointment” as a pick or a player until such time as his career runs its course.
It’s disappointing now, for sure. To start labeling him and grouping him with players who’s story is known, when his is not, is a reach. But hey, maybe he’ll get injured four more times and Polian is a complete idiot, or BBS or others are messiahs capable of physical evaluation and insight superior to a GM, President, Owner, Coaching Staff, and Recruiting team that has put together the most successful team of any decade in NFL history. Maybe… maybe…
by bamock on Aug 30, 2010 5:47 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
The guy was just friggin drafted. HE'S NOT A BAD PICK.
If 2-3 years down the road he doesn’t pan out and we cut him, THEN we can call him a bad draft pick. Just because you never agreed with the pick and are pissed we didn’t pick someone else that you thought would be the savior doesn’t give you the right to call Thomas a bad pick without ANY ANALYSIS whatsoever other than him being injured.
yup, and seems in really good spirits.
Careful what you wish for... "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have." Gerald Ford, 38th US president
Goddamitt
I really had high hopes for Kevin Thomas, he seems to have a knack of breaking up the pass (kinda like Marlin Jackson during his Michigan years) but truthfully speaking I don’t think he will cut it due to the defensive scheme our teams has, I prefer him in man coverage than zone, if he can play both then that’s a plus,
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