Is Logan Thomas Eli Manning’s Backup QB Of The Future?
The New York Giants picked up Logan Thomas off waivers from the Miami Dolphins. With Ryan Nassib in the final year of his contract, he could backup Eli Manning in the years to come.
The New York Giants did a bottom-of-the-roster quarterback shuffle on Friday when they were awarded Logan Thomas off waivers from the Miami Dolphins. Thomas will replace B.J. Daniels on the roster who had been struggling during minicamp.
Daniels was consistently overthrowing targets and lacked passing accuracy, so the Giants replaced him with a quarterback who… Struggles with accuracy. During what would become his final practice with the Dolphins, coaches asked Thomas to throw end zone fades into a trash can. According to the Miami Herald, “Thomas wasn’t even close to hitting it.”
The Arizona Cardinals drafted the 6’6”, 250 pound quarterback in the 4th round in 2014 and he has all the physical tools to be a starter. As a rookie, he had a few strong performances in the preseason and one against the Texans led ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski to give perhaps an overly positive review.
“When I plugged the tape in yesterday morning and I saw Logan Thomas, I was shocked. He was fantastic in this game. He’s big, strong and he can rip throws… Of all the rookie quarterbacks that I’ve watched so far — yes, early in the preseason — Logan Thomas has been the best that I have seen…You plug this tape in, this guy projects to me as an All-Pro.”
Jaws sang a different tune before the draft when he said Thomas couldn’t “hit water if he fell out of a boat.”
Mike Mayock of NFL.com saw in Thomas what Jerry Reese and the Giants see in him now. “When I first saw him, I thought this is a potential first kid picked in the draft. But he’s been very inconsistent. I keep saying somebody is going to want to put Humpty Dumpty back together again because his skill set is amazing.”
It’s a tale that’s been told many times over in the NFL. Every coach thinks they can succeed where other NFL coaches have failed. Quarterbacks coach Frank Cignetti Jr and offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan will attempt to mold Thomas into an accurate quarterback that has drawn comparisons to Ben Roethlisberger.
Thomas won’t overtake backup QB Ryan Nassib this year, he’s already too far behind in learning the offense and too undeveloped. According to Jordan Raanan of NJ.com, he’s even a longshot to make the roster.
However, Nassib is in the final year of his rookie contract. And while he knows the offense and is far from a rookie, Nassib is still inexperienced. He has no starts and has played in five games and 10 total pass attempts in three seasons. The Giants will end up paying big for a player who has barely seen the field because of Manning’s stellar health.
The question now for Thomas is the same the Cardinals had for him before last season. The Cardinals had an established older quarterback in Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton who was a year away from becoming a free agent. The Cards ended up trading for Matt Barkley and the conversation ended there, but some in Arizona believe they gave up on Thomas too early.
The Giants will see what Thomas brings to the table and he may show enough to earn a roster spot. Thomas has the physical tools to be a starter in the league and all the potential, he just needs to be coached up. Time will tell, but Thomas could be an interesting option if the Giants aren’t sold on Nassib as their quarterback of the future.