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Ambry Thomas opted out of the 2020 college football season, but he was almost forced to miss the 2019 campaign as well. The cornerback missed all of the 2019 offseason because of a bout with colitis that hospitalized him and caused him to lose 30 pounds.
He battled all the way back to not only play as a junior, but have his best college season with 38 tackles, three tackles for loss, and three interceptions to go with three pass breakups.
The COVID-19 pandemic led him to opt out of the 2020 campaign to prepare for the NFL draft. Thomas may have gone on Day 1 or 2 had he built on his strong junior year. Instead he slipped all the way to pick 102 where the 49ers scooped him up.
Thomas told Orion Sang of the Detroit Free Press he’d be entering the NFL with a chip on his shoulder and that he wasn’t worried about any rust after a year off.
“I’m ready to show everybody what I can do,” Thomas said. “I feel like I’ve got a chip on my shoulder. Because I feel disrespected through this whole process. I know what I bring to the table. I missed a whole offseason at Michigan and I still played how I played last year. I was on one week of practice when I got back. I know what I can do — I’ll put it like that.”
He also called himself a top-five cornerback in this draft class.
That might explain why the 49ers snatched him at the end of the third round. They needed cornerback help and Thomas has the talent to have been a much earlier pick. If he’s right and he does wind up becoming one of the best cornerbacks in this class, San Francisco might come away with one of the draft’s biggest steals.