ENGLEWOOD, Colo.—The Denver Broncos are banking on raw tight end Julius Thomas grabbing receptions like he did rebounds.
The team traded up in the NFL draft Saturday to take the Portland State product, picking Thomas in the fourth round despite his limited football experience.
A standout basketball player for the Vikings, he returned to football last season after a seven-year hiatus.
Even with his inexperience at tight end, Thomas may challenge for playing time right away. The Broncos, who also selected Nevada tight end Virgil Green in the seventh round, have Daniel Coats, Dan Gronkowski and Richard Quinn on the roster, a trio that collected just nine catches altogether last season.
Quinn was a highly coveted second-round pick in 2009 by then-coach Josh McDaniels but hasn’t lived up to his billing, playing sporadically and catching just one pass in two seasons.
The Broncos are hoping Thomas can follow in the footsteps of San Diego’s Antonio Gates, who made a smooth transition from the basketball court at Kent State to the football field and became a perennial Pro Bowler for the Chargers.
“Being compared to Antonio Gates is a great start for me,” said Thomas of Stockton, Calif. “I’m going to go ahead and work as hard as I can to make that comparison as similar as possible.”
On the basketball court, Thomas helped Portland State reach the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history his sophomore year and guided them back again the following season.
The 6-foot-4, 251-pound power forward was a bully in the blocks, swatting 62 shots and pulling down 520 rebounds. He set school records in games played (121) and career wins (78).
Once he exhausted his basketball eligibility, and with one scholarship season left, he contacted Vikings football coach Nigel Burton about stepping onto the football field, even though Thomas hadn’t played since his freshman year of high school.
Thomas was a quick study, catching 29 passes for 453 yards and earning All-Big Sky Conference first-team honors.
He credits his basketball background for giving him an edge.
“One of the things that I think really helps me is anticipating things quickly, and when you play basketball, you’re required to anticipate at the drop of a dime,” Thomas said. “We’re used to setting guys up, getting open and working with body contact, and I think those things really help you become a natural person, and it gives you natural passing lanes for the quarterback.”
Thomas’ stock soared at the East-West Shrine Game, where he captured the attention of scouts with his athleticism. He’s pretty quick (running the 40 in 4.72 seconds), pretty strong (bench pressing 225 pounds 17 times) and very agile (boasting a 34-inch vertical jump).
“A lot of teams had question marks: ‘What can he do against top-level competition?'” recounted Thomas, who had a 5-yard TD catch in the All-Star game. “I grew a lot from my last college game to that Shrine Game, and I think it showed. It really allowed teams to see how I compete against some of the best talent and how far I came in those three months and how much I’ve learned in that time.
“I think it really put me on the radar for teams and let them know that I was serious.”
The Broncos turning a hoops player into a tight end is nothing new. The team went down this road in 2005, trying to convert Wesley Duke, a basketball player out of Mercer, into the next Gates. It didn’t quite pan out.
Thomas wasn’t surprised the Broncos called his name because they talked to him more than any other team did.
“You try not to get your hopes up too much, but when people ask what team I hoped to play for, it was definitely the Broncos,” Thomas said. “I had my fingers crossed.”
In his spare time, Thomas could have some spirited one-on-one games with Green, who’s also a hoops enthusiast and boasts a 42-inch vertical leap.
“(Thomas) probably has a little better shot than I do. My specialty was dunking,” Green said. “I’m going to have to make him drive into the lane or something, because I can’t let him shoot.”
