Earlier this week, the NFL released the list of players who were invited to the 2022 NFL Scouting Combine, which gives teams a chance to evaluate prospects before the draft. Among the players invited was Thomas Booker, who just completed his senior season on The Farm.
Getting invited to the combine is a good sign for Booker’s NFL prospects as only 324 players were invited. The NFL draft has seven rounds and with 32 picks per round, that means 224 players get drafted. Assuming all of those are players who were invited to the combine, that means 69.14% of those players will get drafted. That indicates Booker has an almost 70% chance of getting drafted based on those metrics alone.
Back when Booker declared for the 2022 NFL Draft in December, I wrote the following:
In terms of his NFL potential, Booker has great physical tools at 6’4”, 309 pounds. He totaled 159 tackles (89 solo), 20.5 tackles for a loss, 9.5 sacks, and 1 interception during his Stanford career. He’s got a nice blend of speed and strength, that should get him a look by NFL teams and he’s also a very high IQ player. He understands the game really well and is one of the brightest guys you’ll ever be around. So that intelligence should serve him well as he goes through the pre-draft process.
Interestingly enough, Booker’s most productive seasons on The Farm were his freshman and sophomore years when he weighed 279-280 pounds. It was when he added the weight that his numbers started to dip. So, shedding the weight might be a good move for him. With less weight, he was quicker off the edge and that seemed to make a positive difference for him.
My honest projection for Thomas Booker is somewhere in the range of 6th round to undrafted. Once you get to that point of the draft, there’s a whole bunch of different guys who could get picked and Booker will be among those that could be selected at that point. Regardless of whether or not he gets selected, he’s a guy who we could see on Sundays. You just can’t teach the physical gifts or IQ that he has.
Now that he’s been invited to the combine, it’ll be interesting to see how he performs and whether or not that will boost his stock. As I said in December, his combination of physical gifts and intellect make him an intriguing prospect that just might find a home in the league.
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