Joshua Lloyd Thomas (born June 26, 1981) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formations over the years have substantially changed how the position is p ...

. He was signed by the

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) South division. Since the 20 ...

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

in 2004 and later won

Super Bowl XLI Super Bowl XLI was an American football game played between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Indianapolis Colts and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Chicago Bears to decide the National Football League (NFL) champ ...

with them, defeating the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine ...

. He played college football at

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Early years

Thomas attended High School in Orchard Park,

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and played TE & DE. As a senior in 1999, Josh set a New York State sack record with 23.5 sacks in an 11-game season.

College career

He was a three-year starter at

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

who opened 34 of 36 career games and had 124 career tackles, nine sacks, 23 tackles for losses and two interceptions. Thomas started 11 games as a senior, 10 games as a junior when he led DL with six passes defensed and was third on line with 33 tackles and second on the team with eight QB pressures. He started 13 games as a sophomore and posted 46 tackles, seven for losses, and 15 pressures. He appeared in two games as a freshman and had a season-high five tackles, one sack and one interception against Buffalo.

Professional career

He signed as an undrafted free agent with Colts on April 30, 2004. In 2004 as a rookie FA, he played in first 11 games before sustaining season-ending knee injury at Detroit 11/2/2004, he had 18 tackles, 11 solo, one sack, four pressures and one forced fumble. In 2005, he started two of 12 games at DE and had 29 tackles, 19 solo, eight pressures and three sacks. In 2006, he saw action in 14 games and made 35 tackles, 29 solo, one sack and one fumble recovery. In 2007, he started seven of 15 games, five at LDE and two at RDE, filling in for injured Dwight Freeney and made career-high 55 tackles, 33 solo, 1.0 sack, 14 pressures, one forced fumble and three passes batted. In 2008, he started three of 16 games and had 35 tackles, 26 solo, five pressures and one batted pass. Thomas was released after the 2008 season. The Colts re-signed him on August 18, 2009. He was re-signed during the season but released again on November 11.

References

External links

Indianapolis Colts bio

Syracuse Orange bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Josh 1981 births Living people Players of American football from Massachusetts American football defensive ends Syracuse Orange football players Indianapolis Colts players