Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images We broke down new Lions DE Isaiah Thomas’ film, highlighted his strengths and weaknesses, and projected his role in Detroit’s defense. While Detroit Lions fans eagerly await to see how the team will attempt to mitigate the damage left by Aidan Hutchinson’s broken leg, the team went to work on fortifying their depth. The Lions officially signed Bengals defensive end Isaiah Thomas off of Cincinnati practice squad. This is, in no way, a replacement for Hutchinson. He’s a 25-year-old former seventh-round pick who only has 10 NFL games under his belt and hasn’t seen the field since December of 2022. But Detroit is adding Thomas to their 53-man roster, so they clearly have a game day role in mind for him. And considering everyone on the depth chart on the defensive line is now one step up, filling that depth is important with three months still left to go this season. I dove into Thomas’ tape on Tuesday to identify his strengths and weaknesses, and try to project his role within the Lions' defense. Quick bio Thomas was a seventh-round pick of the Cleveland Browns back in 2022. He played a healthy amount of snaps in that rookie season (162 defensive snaps in 10 games), particularly early in the season when Chase Winovich was on injured reserve. When Winovich returned, Thomas mostly moved back to the bench. He spent the entire 2023 season on the Browns’ practice squad, never getting a single call-up. And after spending the 2024 offseason in Cleveland, he was waived and signed to the Bengals’ practice squad. A few things to keep in mind during this film review: This is all taken from Thomas’ first ever NFL action in his rookie season. For reference, I watched every snap from the Jets, Falcons, Patriots, and Ravens games. He’s had two years of development behind the scenes since then but hasn’t shown enough in practice to crack a game day lineup. In nearly every snap I watched, Thomas was lined up on the defense’s right (over the left tackle). All but a handful of snaps had his hand in the dirt, but he moved anywhere from the 5 to the 9-tech. I did not see him kick inside once. Strengths His biggest strength is literally his strength. Thomas plays with the kind of physical nature that we have come to expect out of Lions defensive ends. That will come in handy for when defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn is trying to dial up pressure via stunts—which he does often. You want an example of how Isaiah Thomas (#58) can help the Lions? Thomas is the RDE. Now imagine #96 is Levi Onwuzurike. Just digging into Thomas now, but he's a physical dude with modest explosiveness. Can see him filling Marcus Davenport's role more than Aidan's. pic.twitter.com/Bz9QklkUIn— Jeremy Reisman (@DetroitOnLion) October 15, 2024 It’s not quite the same as what Hutchinson does below, but you can certainly see the similar impact (even though Thomas won’t likely draw this kind of attention): Most are familiar with a Pirate Stunt (5/3), but an underutilized tool is reducing the Nose/5t side.Here, the Lions stunt their weak side against the Rams & it opens the window for the Will LB to work through the gap & make TFL. #ArtofX pic.twitter.com/g7KQlkP1b1— Cody Alexander (@The_Coach_A) July 18, 2024 That same physical presence from Thomas can help Detroit crush the pocket—their preferred method of pass rush over just cleanly beating the player in front of you. Thomas’ best statistical performance of his rookie came in Week 7 of the 2022 season against the Baltimore Ravens. He produced a 77.8 PFF grade, including a 90.5 pass rush grade. Mind you, this was against Ravens All-Pro left tackle Ronnie Stanley. Back into the Isaiah Thomas film. 2022 vs. Baltimore was his best game by PFF standards (77.8).Again, you can see how his style fits exactly what the Lions look for in that RDE role. Seems like depth to give Paschal a breather to me. pic.twitter.com/OhYttCtRgb— Jeremy Reisman (@DetroitOnLion) October 15, 2024 Of course, the Lions wouldn’t acquire a player if he didn’t fit their high standard of work ethic. It’s tough to pull those intangibles from film, but if there was one example of this it was late in the Browns/Ravens game with under four minutes left. Baltimore was looking to run out the clock and win the game, but Thomas came up with a huge fumble recovery despite making a bad mistake on the same play. Last one before I write something up on him. Missed tackle: Bad.Relentless pursuit leading to a fumble recovery: #DanCampbellGuy pic.twitter.com/GVQw21TU3N— Jeremy Reisman (@DetroitOnLion) October 15, 2024 He has the opportunity for a tackle for loss, but overpursues and whiffs. Not to be denied, he follows the play and jumps on the fumble for a big turnover. It’s easy to see why the Lions would like this kind of effort. Weaknesses While Thomas can sometimes win with his power, if he doesn’t initially drive the tackle backward, I didn’t see much of a Plan B. Patriots left tackle Trenton Brown held Thomas to a single pressure on eight pass rushing snaps. Thomas does have active hands and nearly always brings the effort, but it all just looks unrefined at this point. Of course, this is where I remind you that this is film from his first 50 NFL snaps. It’s entirely possible he’s added some technique and strategy to his game over the past two years. I just have no film of that. I also came away a bit underwhelmed by his run defense. At times, the strength showed up. Other times, he tried to cheat around defenders and ended up getting plowed out of his gap: (Note: No. 43 filling the wrong gap makes this look a little worse than it was.) Role As noted in one of the tweets above, I see Thomas firmly in that Davenport/Paschal role on the right side of the defensive line. He doesn’t have the arsenal of pass rush moves nor the athleticism to play Hutchinson’s role, but I wouldn’t call him unathletic, either. I view this addition as someone who will eventually get 5-15 snaps a game when Paschal needs a break. I do think Thomas could eventually kick inside in certain subpackages simply based on his physical stature and play style, but with no actual experience at it (at least that I’ve seen) and no offseason to acclimate, I imagine they’ll keep his role relatively simple. I still fully expect the Lions to explore other options for Hutchinson’s role, both internally and externally. I view this move as an effort to simply improve their reserves.