Solomon Christopher Thomas (born August 26, 1995) is an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

defensive tackle A defensive tackle (DT) is a position in American football that typically lines up on the line of scrimmage, opposite one of the Guard (American football), offensive guards; however, he may also line up opposite one of the offensive Tackle (gridir ...

for the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. T ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL). He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the

Stanford Cardinal The Stanford Cardinal are the college athletics in the United States, athletic teams that represent Stanford University. Stanford's program has won 138 National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA team championships, the List of NCAA schools ...

and was selected third overall by the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member ...

in the 2017 NFL draft. He has also played in the NFL for the

Las Vegas Raiders The Las Vegas Raiders are a professional American football team based in the Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas metropolitan area. The Raiders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC West ...

and

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team p ...

Early life

Thomas was born in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, on August 26, 1995. Thomas and his family moved to

Sydney, Australia Sydney is the capital city of the state of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about 80 km (50 mi) from the Pacific Ocean ...

when he was two years old, where he lived for five years. He attended Coppell High School in

Coppell, Texas Coppell ( ) is a city in the northwest corner of Dallas County in the U.S. state of Texas. It is a suburb of Dallas and a bedroom community in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Its population was 42,983 at the 2020 census. A small area in th ...

. He had 78

tackles Tackle may refer to: * In football: ** Tackle (football move), a play in various forms of football ** Tackle (gridiron football position) A tackle is a playing position in American football. Historically, in the one-platoon system prevalent ...

and 12.5 sacks as a senior and 89 tackles with 8.5 sacks as a junior. Thomas was rated as a four-star recruit and was ranked among the top players in his class. He committed to

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

to play

College career

After redshirting his first year with the

in 2014, Thomas played in all 14 games in 2015, starting six, and had 39 total tackles, 10.5 tackles-for-loss, and 3.5 sacks. In recognition of his successful 2015 season, he was named as an honorable mention All-Pac-12 Conference selection. In 2016, Thomas played and started all 13 games and had 62 total tackles with 15.0 tackles-for-loss and 8.0 sacks. Thomas was named first team All-Pac-12 and won the Morris Trophy. Following the 2016 season, Thomas declared his intentions to enter the 2017 NFL draft.

Professional career

Pre-draft

Coming out of Stanford, Thomas was projected to be a first round pick by the majority of analysts and scouts. He was invited to the

NFL Scouting Combine The NFL Scouting Combine is a week-long showcase occurring every February at Lucas Oil Stadium (and formerly at the RCA Dome until 2008) in Indianapolis, where college football players perform physical and mental tests in front of National Foot ...

, but only chose to participate in the

bench press The bench press or chest press is a weight training exercise where a person presses a weight upwards while lying horizontally on a weight training bench. The bench press is a Compound movements, compound movement, with the primary muscles involved ...

, 40-yard dash,

vertical jump A vertical jump or vertical leap is the act of jumping upwards into the air. It can be an exercise for building both endurance and strength, and is also a standard test for measuring athletic performance. It may also be referred to as a ''Sargent ...

, and broad jump. On March 23, 2017, Thomas attended Stanford's

pro day The NFL draft, officially known as the Annual Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the most common source of player recruitment in the National Football League. Each team is given a position in the drafting order in reve ...

, but opted to stand on his combine numbers and only performed positional drills. He was ranked the second best defensive end (behind Myles Garrett) by NFLDraftScout.com,

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, and ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

''.

San Francisco 49ers

Thomas was drafted third overall by the

in the 2017 NFL Draft. He became the third consecutive defensive end drafted in the first round by the 49ers, joining Arik Armstead (

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

) and DeForest Buckner (

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

). The man who drafted Thomas—newly appointed 49ers general manager John Lynch—coincidentally studied alongside Thomas as a mature student while working as a broadcaster for

FOX Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...

, and counselled Thomas to leave Stanford without knowing he would be in a position to draft him as a member of the 49ers front office the following season. On July 28, 2017, the 49ers signed Thomas to a fully guaranteed four-year, $28.14 million contract that included a

signing bonus A signing bonus or sign-on bonus is a sum of money paid to a new employee (including a professional sports person) by a company as an incentive to join that company. They are often given as a way of making a compensation package more attractive ...

of $18.61 million. He played in 14 games as a rookie with 12 starts, recording 41 tackles and three sacks. On May 1, 2020, the 49ers declined the fifth-year option on Thomas' contract, making him a free agent in 2021. During the 49ers' Week 2 matchup against the

, Thomas suffered a torn ACL and was ruled out for the rest of the season.

Las Vegas Raiders

Thomas signed a one-year contract with the

on March 19, 2021. He played in all 17 games, recording 34 tackles, 3.5 sacks, and two forced

fumbles A fumble in gridiron football occurs when a player who has possession and control of the ball loses it before being downed (tackled), scoring, or going out of bounds. By rule, it is any act other than passing, kicking, punting, or successful ...

New York Jets

On March 30, 2022, Thomas signed with the Jets. He was named a backup defensive tackle behind Quinnen Williams, Sheldon Rankins, and Nathan Shepherd. He played in all 17 games, recording 26 tackles, while playing 33% of snaps. Thomas re-signed with the Jets on March 18, 2023. He played in 17 games with three starts, recording a career-high five sacks. Thomas re-signed with the Jets again on March 21, 2024. He finished the 2024 season with 3.5 sacks, 26 tackles, two passes defended, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery.

Dallas Cowboys

On March 12, 2025, Thomas signed a two-year, $8 million contract with the

NFL statistics

Regular season

Postseason

Personal life

Thomas's older sister died by suicide in 2018 at the age of 24. He founded "The Defensive Line", a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

aiming to reduce youth suicide.

References

External links

*
Dallas Cowboys profileStanford Cardinal profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Solomon 1995 births Living people American football defensive ends American football defensive tackles Sportspeople from Coppell, Texas Players of American football from Chicago Players of American football from Dallas County, Texas Players of American football from Denton County, Texas Coppell High School alumni Stanford Cardinal football players San Francisco 49ers players Las Vegas Raiders players New York Jets players Dallas Cowboys players