Basically since last season ended, Washington Football Team coaches and players have insisted that not only was tight end Logan Thomas’s breakout 2020 not a fluke, it was only a beginning. You would be forgiven for any skepticism, partly because the 30-year-old former quarterback’s stats from last year — 72 catches, 670 yards, six touchdowns — were between double and triple his previous career totals.
But here’s the argument for why he will keep ascending, according to tight ends coach Pete Hoener, Thomas’s staunchest supporter. Thomas has “complete tight end traits,” including his combination of size and speed, as well as room to improve and a body that hasn’t taken as many hits as others his age. Hoener said Thomas is one of the league’s top-seven tight ends already, and when asked whether he was near his ceiling, Hoener said, “No.”
“I do anticipate him taking another big step,” Coach Ron Rivera echoed during offseason workouts, and five weeks later, the team backed that up by signing Thomas to a three-year deal worth roughly $24 million.
Early in training camp, at least one part of Washington’s plan to help him break out again is sharpening into focus. During one period of practice Wednesday, Thomas was the only tight end to not traipse across the field for blocking drills. He instead stayed with the receivers and ran deep routes — a stark visual departure from last year, when he was a high-volume, shorter-yardage safety blanket for the team’s quarterbacks.
The next step for Thomas is to maximize his catches because, by snaps and targets, he’s already in the vicinity of the league’s elite tight ends, such as Kansas City’s Travis Kelce and San Francisco’s George Kittle. But he’s not as explosive as they are. For example, while his 6.9 targets per game ranked fourth among tight ends last year, they didn’t travel far (his 5.6 air yards per catch ranked 25th) and he didn’t do a lot with them after the catch (his four yards after the catch per reception, 20th).
This offseason, Thomas studied other receivers down the field to find nuances he could improve. He focused on getting out of his breaks cleaner and deepening his understanding of route-running from the receiver perspective. Rivera noticed the difference in camp when, on one play, Thomas saw the linebacker vacate the middle seam, so he adjusted his route and turned underneath, making it an easy throw for the quarterback.
Later, Rivera noted Thomas saw a similar play and explained the concept — find the crease in the defense rather than always running a route as it’s drawn — to fourth-round pick John Bates.
“The next level of my game is helping others around me and not just worrying about myself,” said Thomas, who often deflects to teammates when asked about specific parts of his game. “If I can grab a guy and make him just 5 percent better off of something I can show him, it makes our team better.”
Similar to running back Antonio Gibson, an advanced understanding of his position will allow Thomas to open up the playbook for offensive coordinator Scott Turner. For example, if Turner wanted to use three-tight end sets, he could line Thomas up in the backfield as a fullback and use motion to get Thomas the best matchup.
In those sets, though, Washington would need other tight ends that defenses respect as receivers. This almost never happened last year, and Hoener acknowledged the team needed to find complements to Thomas. “In an ideal world,” he said, “you want three Logan Thomases out there.”
But until scientists and ethicists have breakthroughs in cloning, Washington’s best hopes are Bates, veteran Temarrick Hemingway and camp-signee Ricky Seals-Jones. Sammis Reyes, a developmental player who missed practice Wednesday with a knee injury, has not yet shown that he is ready to contribute.
In the meantime, Hoener noted, Thomas must keep developing to maintain his confidence. He thought the tight end was down on himself at the start of last season.
“He made a few plays and made some great blocks in the red zone, at the goal line, and all of a sudden, his whole persona changed,” the coach said. “Fortunately, for him and for us, he had to play a lot, so he’s in there getting more reps and continuing to improve.”
Washington hopes the same will be true of his deep routes, the benefits of which have been evident in practice. Perhaps the best example came in the two-minute drill Tuesday. Facing fourth and 20 from the 29, Thomas ran into the end zone and wound up competing for a jump ball against cornerback William Jackson III. Thomas reached over Jackson and wrenched the ball away for a dramatic score.
31 routes run (6th most among TEs)
