Fifteen months after he originally hoped it would happen, Phillip Thomas is on the verge of starting his first game with the Washington Redskins.
Thomas, a fourth-round pick out of Fresno State in 2013, missed that whole season and the first eight games this year because of injury. Finally healthy, he made his debut in a Week 9 loss at Minnesota, then played his first defensive snaps in a Week 12 loss at San Francisco.
With strong safety Brandon Meriweather considered doubtful to play Sunday in the Redskins’ game against St. Louis, that starting responsibility may very likely fall on Thomas’ shoulders.
He’s ready.
“I’m just reminding myself that this is football, man, and I’ve been doing it for a long time,” Thomas said. “I’m making sure I just stay on my reads, stay on my keys and let that take me to what I need to do, and then let my athletic ability and my ball skills … and my tackling ability handle itself.”
Thomas led the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision in interceptions when he was a senior, picking off eight passes in a season in which he became Fresno State’s first unanimous all-America selection.
The Redskins drafted him that spring hoping he’d be ready to slide into the lineup as a starter, but Thomas sustained a Lisfranc sprain in his left foot in the first preseason game that required surgery and forced him to spend the year on injured reserve.
Thomas then strained a hamstring in training camp on July 28, and then broke a bone in his left foot — an injury he said was unrelated to the previous one — on Aug. 25.
Because he wasn’t healthy enough to play, he was among the Redskins’ final cuts less than a week later, but was signed to the practice squad the next day and spent the first eight games rehabilitating and getting back his timing.
“It’s time for him to step up,” Gruden said. “This is a great opportunity for Phillip, and we hope that he can step in there and show why he’s still here. I think he’s got some talent, but he’s got to go out and put it together for a full football game — not for three quarters, or eight drives out of 12. He’s got to put it together, and hopefully, he will. We’ve got faith in him.”
Thomas played exclusively on special teams in his first two games, then saw 15 snaps on defense in the loss to the 49ers and an additional 24 snaps in the loss to the Colts. Though he finished with five tackles, including one on special teams, his most notable play was a negative — the 79-yard touchdown reception by Indianapolis wide receiver Donte Moncrief with 10:46 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Washington was showing a Cover-2 look on that play, and Thomas shaded too far to his left and briefly bit on an out route by wide receiver T.Y. Hilton. That gave Moncrief enough time to get by Thomas, who couldn’t recover from his mistake.
“He just thought he was going to try to make a big play, come out of his zone and try to steal an interception but got caught, and Andrew [Luck, the Colts’ quarterback] saw him,” Gruden said. “But I think he knows what to do, man. He’s a smart kid. He just sometimes gets a little greedy with his eyes and tries to make big plays that aren’t there, but hopefully, he’ll learn from it and have a good game for us. We need him.”
That big-play desire is a habit Thomas picked up in college, when he was playing against simpler offenses and easier competition. Things change in the professional game, he realized, and staying within the defensive scheme and trusting the coaches is important to allowing his teammates do their job correctly as well.
“The defensive call allows me to do certain things, and I’ve just got to stick to it,” Thomas said. “I get caught up sometimes because I like to see the ball. I like to go get the ball and look at the quarterback, and I get caught out of position sometimes looking and seeing him too much, and I just need to see what I need to see and let that take me to whatever I need to do.”
With Meriweather, who sprained one of his big toes in the loss at Indianapolis, only tied to the Redskins through the end of this season, it’s plausible that Thomas could take over as a starter as soon as next year.
That’s something Thomas said he’s not thinking about. Instead, “this is Brandon’s position,” Thomas said, and his goal is simply to play well enough to help his team on Sunday.
“I’m keeping it warm for him, but I need to show what I’m worth,” Thomas said. “I need to show that I have the ball skills based on when I came out of Fresno and the tackling ability and all the athletic ability that I possess.”
• Zac Boyer can be reached at zboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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