GumboBC

I think Fred Thomas is vastly underrated and I think that's especially true when it comes to Saints' fans. There is no way you can look at stats and truly tell how good a CB is.

Just because a CB has a lot of interceptions that doesn't necessarily mean he's the best CB in the league or even on his team. It could mean that he's the guy QB's are throwing at more often. Or, it could mean that some CB just drops more balls that should have been interceptions.

It would be helpful if the NFL kept stats on how many balls were thrown at a particular CB and how many were completed and for how many yards. There are no such stats as far as I'm aware. But, there are individual stats on how many passes a CB deflected. Which tells me how often the CB was in position to break up a pass. Of course, these stats could be skewed if QB's are throwing the ball at those CB's more often.

But, I don't think CB's were picking on Fred Thomas last year. At least not to the degree where it's going to skew his stats. Some might disagree and I'm willing to listen to any arguments?

In any event, here are the NFL leaders in passes deflected:

Defensive Leaders: Passes Deflected -
1 Ty Law- 23
2 M. Coleman- 22
Fred Thomas- 22
4 Tyrone Poole- 21
5 T. Newman- 20
M. Trufant- 20
7 Tony Parrish- 18
Mike McKenzie- 18

Stat Source:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/statis...on=2&year=2003

Some will make the case that Thomas doesn't have the size or skills needed to shut down the best receivers in the league. Maybe, maybe not. I make the case that Fred Thomas has done quite well against some of the best receivers in the league and he did it while our poor pass rush allowed the QB all the time in the world to let the receiver come open.

I've watched Fred play and he seems to always be in the right place at the right time to me? I never remember receivers making him look bad?

Thoughts???


[Edited on 27/6/2004 by GumboBC]