The Giants were confident that Georgia's Andrew Thomas was the best offensive tackle in this draft class, and they showed that by selecting him No. 4 overall on Thursday night.
And the tape shows why.
During his three seasons with the Bulldogs, Thomas went up against some of college's best pass rushers in the SEC as well as some of the best overall defenses during his trips to the College Football Playoff.
According to Pro Football Focus, Thomas allowed just five sacks through his entire career and only 25 total pressures. As for game-to-game performance, he didn't allow more than two quarterback pressures in a game since 2017.
So who's he going against to get such standout numbers? Take LSU's K'Lavon Chaisson for example.
The newest Jaguar was a force for the national champion Tigers last season, and they had to go through Thomas' Bulldogs to get there in the first place. And while LSU's overall defense was too much for Georgia to handle, Thomas was doing just fine with Chaisson at left tackle.
Chaisson had 13.5 sacks last season, but Thomas didn't allow him anywhere close to his quarterback, Jake Fromm. Check it out:
Giants LT Andrew Thomas dominating LSU pass rusher K'Lavon Chaisson pic.twitter.com/32oHPxzZ1B
- Bobby Skinner (@BobbySkinner_) April 24, 2020
Chaisson is a speed rusher who likes to mix things up at the line of scrimmage to keep his blocker guessing. But it was the exact opposite with Thomas, who matched his physicality up front and was quick enough to get his feet moving to stop Chaisson trying to bend around the corner to get to Fromm. He did so once by causing Fromm to lose the ball, but other than that, he was quiet.
There's also this now famous clip about Thomas going up against another Jaguars edge rusher in Josh Allen, too...
Look at Andrew Thomas throwing Josh Allen out of the club. pic.twitter.com/wb43gxgpnL
- Giants Daily (@NYGDaily) April 24, 2020
The seventh overall pick in the 2019 draft was dominant at Kentucky in his senior season with 17 sacks and 21.5 tackles for loss. This was just one clip of another dominant day on the line for Thomas.
And then there's someone Thomas will be seeing a lot of for the next few seasons with the Giants. Chase Young went to the Redskins with the No. 2 overall pick as expected, so Thomas and the rest of the Giants' line will have to watch him twice a year now.
Thomas has seen Young in action, but it was back in high school when the two faced off against each other.
Damn Giants got the LT to stop Chase Young and Dwayne Haskins is still their QB? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/02geip9Sco
- Bobby Skinner (@BobbySkinner_) April 24, 2020
Young has filled out much more and learned some more technique since those days, but so has Thomas. That will certainly be a fun matchup to watch.
However, this is only pass blocking. Thomas said on Thursday night that he loves to run block, and the stats show it was a 91.3 run-block grade from PFF. He's considered a "mauler" in that aspect of the game, and Saquon Barkley should have success running behind him.
Once Thomas is able to latch onto, he usually does a great job of sustaining his blocks in the run game. pic.twitter.com/FuRn3bo5rp
- NFL Film Review (@NFLFilmReview) April 22, 2020
GM Dave Gettleman and head coach Joe Judge pointed at Thomas' success against some of the best in college football, and that contributed to his name being called by Big Blue. They will hope he can continue that track record against some better NFL edge rushers for seasons to come.