Rd 3, Pick 89: Zavion Thomas, WR, LSU

When I first heard ‘Zavion’ called, I got excited. I thought the Bears drafted the other Zxavion, Zxavion Harris. A DT with a record. Turns out, Harris didn’t even get drafted because of his red flags. Get on it, Poles!

My second initial reaction, “Great, another Velus-Cohen special.” Perhaps I’m just an overly traumatized Bear fans, “Tell me where Halas touched you…”

For any who still doubt that BJ is driving and Poles riding shotgun, this is the pick. So this really is the “in Ben we trust” era.

“This guy is going to be a weapon,” Bears assistant director of college scouting Francis St. Paul said on Friday. “This is one of the guys that Ben, when he saw the tape, started doing his little rocking and you could tell he was really excited about him.”

The new kickoff rules have actually pushed a lot of prospects with return skills up the boards making iffy HBs, scatbacks and hybrid WRs much more viable than in previous years. Drafniks hadn’t factored this much into their mocks, as such, they made Zavion Thomas a 7th RDer or priority UFDA;

Nevertheless, actual GMs and coaches obviously covet starting field position much more.

Silvy@WaddleandSilvy

Our friend @FieldYates told us a great story about Zavion Thomas. Field didn’t have him in his top 150. Someone called him and asked why. That person told him that Thomas would eventually be a third round pick. And it wasn’t from someone w/ the #Bears.

Teams would kick it out of the back of the endzone because that’s what the math dictated. Roughly 23% of kickoffs were returned. That’s not much value for a returner. They changed the rule to punish teams that booted it out. Suddenly coaches didn’t want to cede a measly extra 5 yards because it changed the winning/losing math. This dramatically boosted returns from 23% to about 70%, or as Hoge relayed, about 70 chances to create a big play per season.

If Zavion Thomas can gift the O an extra 5-7 yds per drive, that alone might be worth the pick. Think about how some clutch Devin Durvernay returns changed momentum and even a win or two.

An extra 5-7 yards could be the difference between a short shanked punt which only nets 20 yds, or turning a 60 yd FG attempt into a 53 yder to tie/win the game.

That’s not even accounting for the sky in the pie scenario where Thomas plays more like the OTHER Chicago returner named Devin.

Ben Johnson obviously calculated the risk to be worth it. Something else to consider. Maybe BJ doesn’t see Thomas as a gadget/ speed slot WR. Maybe, just maybe, he sees him more as his Jahmyr Gibbs.

Or Thomas was ridiculously overdrafted and Velus 2.0…