2015 NFL Draft: Late Round Hidden Gems Bengals Could Select

Tyrus Thompson’s lack of effort at times could land him in the later rounds of April’s NFL draft. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

OT Tyrus Thompson

Another Sooner, left tackle Tyrus Thompson looks the part of an NFL tackle and possesses natural ability.  The problem with Thompson is, quite frankly, he’s lazy.  Call it what you want, pundits often point to “NFL character” and things of that nature, but Thompson is worth a late round investment.

At 6’6″, 336 pounds, Thompson is a mammoth of a player who is capable of dominating the opponent.  He has every bit of talent to play on both sides of the line, but this would require effort on his part, and many scouts will question whether or not he’s willing to commit himself to the necessary work.

Tyrus Thompson reminds me a lot of Seantrel Henderson.  Henderson’s draft profile looked a lot like this: great size, special talent, but lazy.  The Buffalo Bills ended up taking Henderson in the middle of the seventh round and he eventually became the team’s starting right tackle.

This won’t automatically be the case for Thompson, but with him likely dropping to the later rounds due to his character rather than ability, one could assume it would be hard for someone to realize he gave up millions of guaranteed dollars, and possibly his dream, due to laziness.

The Bengals need a tackle of the future and especially for depth in the coming year.  It’s likely they’ll take one earlier in the draft.  But if Tyrus Thompson falls to the later rounds of this year’s draft, he would be an interesting prospect to grab and see how things work out.  Low risk, high reward, sounds great to me late in the draft.

Next: Final Steal of 2015 - Another DT for Cincinnati