Why Undrafted?: Trenton Thompson, DT, Georgia
By Charlie Campbell, @draftcampbell
Four years ago, we started a series of articles on why certain prospects went undrafted. In that series, I reach out to sources with NFL teams to find out why their organizations passed on drafting a given player, and/or, what were the reasons for other teams to pass on that prospect. We got a lot of positive reader feedback about the series, so we decided to expand in the genre to investigate why some prospects slid in the draft. Three years ago, we started the Why the Slide? series, and this year it is back. Feel free to email me requests for Why the Slide? and Why Undrafted? at [email protected]. I can’t promise to get to all of them, but I will do my best and definitely will respond to the email.
To end the 2016 season, a lot of media attention was focused on Stanford defensive lineman Solomon Thomas, who had a huge performance in the bowl game against North Carolina and quarterback Mitch Trubisky. At the same time, Georgia’s Trenton Thompson put together a dominant game against TCU in the Liberty Bowl, racking up three sacks. It looked like Thompson was having a coming-out party to set up a big junior year. The 6-foot-3, 288-pounder seemed cable capable of being an impactful interior pass-rusher, and those are one of the hardest things to find for am NFL defense. The sophomore totaled 56 tackles with 9.5 tackles for a loss, five sacks and a pass broken up in 2016.
As a junior, Thompson missed multiple games with an MCL sprain, and he only totaled 38 tackles with 3.5 for a loss and zero sacks in 2017. Team sources felt that Thompson should have returned to school to improve rather than entering the 2018 NFL Draft. He did help himself with a good combine workout. Despite having a good skill set, Thompson was not selected in the 2018 NFL Draft.
Sources at multiple teams said the reason that Thompson went undrafted was off-the-field issues, but they didn’t want to disclose the nature of them. They also said that Thompson did not have good football character on top of those off-the-field concerns.
After going undrafted, Thompson signed with the Cleveland Browns, and that was a wise choice by Thompson and his agent. Cleveland traded away Danny Shelton and did not draft a defensive tackle this year. The Browns have 2017 draft picks Larry Ogunjobi and Caleb Brantley returning with former undrafted free agent Trevon Coley, so the Browns have what appears to be an open competition for playing time and starting positions at tackle. Thompson could make the team as a backup to those players and try to earn more playing time. With the talent the Browns have at defensive end, the tackles should get a lot of good pass-rushing looks and some of these young defenders could break out. If Thompson clears up his off-the-field issues and works hard to maximize his talent, he could end up carving out a pro career with the Browns.
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