Key Wisconsin Badgers: No. 7 - Linebacker Jaheim Thomas

Wisconsin's 2024 football season is right around the corner, so BadgerBlitz.com ranked the top 30 players who we think will be the keys to success for Luke Fickell's squad this year.

Playing time, past performance and positional depth all factored into our staff rankings.

The coaching staff’s relationship with linebacker Jaheim Thomas goes back longer than perhaps any other Badger.

The Cincinnati native was Fickell’s first top-200 recruit as a head coach and helped him earn their first top-40 recruiting class. He was rated as the No. 167 player in the 2020 class, No. 14 at outside linebacker and third in the state of Ohio.

Thomas’s offer list included many of the top programs in the country, including Ohio State, Michigan and Notre Dame, but he only ever visited Cincinnati, LSU and Michigan State before committing to the Bearcats.

He spent three seasons at Cincinnati and became a key member of the rotation. When Fickell left for Wisconsin prior to last season, Thomas instead chose to test himself and play in the SEC, for Arkansas.

But when the 2023 season ended and Thomas was on the move once again, his old coach was waiting with open arms.

“I’ve been with these guys a long time. They recruited me out of high school so really it was like coming back home,” Thomas told reporters during spring camp.

Thomas has spent his collegiate career on the inside, but his history as a pass rusher will be obvious rather immediately.

First off, he has the prototypical body for an edge. He came out of high school at 6-foot-3, 222 pounds, with a superb 6-foot-7 wingspan. He’s gained about 20 pounds since then, which led to a slight decline in quickness, but is still quicker than just about every other inside linebacker on the roster.

Last season he earned an 81.6 pass rush grade on Pro Football Focus, and an 84.1 the year before. His 17 pressures in 2023 would’ve been fifth-most on Wisconsin.

He has the pass-rushing and athleticism sides of the position down. But there are still a few skills Thomas must iron out before he’s a true five-tool player.

As expected for someone who’s spent most of their life on the line of scrimmage, he’s not natural in pass coverage. Thomas earned a 52.4 PFF coverage grade last year, and a 51.9 the year before. In 2023, he was targeted 21 times and allowed 17 receptions.

Thomas also showed occasional struggles as a tackler, which is ultimately less excusable for his position. He missed 15 tackles in 2023, three more than the highest total on Wisconsin’s roster.

“Being able to transition and make reads and play in coverage is really where I feel like I’ve developed myself over the [past] couple of years,” Thomas said.

“This year, I really just want to go past my potential as a linebacker, playing off the edge, playing in the box and having a whole lot of coverage and being real aggressive.”

The coaches mostly played Thomas at will linebacker during the spring, allowing them the freedom to push him up the line of scrimmage and rush the passer.

The coach’s intentions, according to Thomas, are to “line guys up at different situations, line them up in different positions so the offense doesn’t really know where we’re coming on a blitz”, which adequately sums up what he can bring to the team.

There’s not much historical precedent for a player like Thomas at Wisconsin. He’s an athletic freak of nature with experience, intelligence and versatility. It’s difficult to come up with reasons he won’t have instant impact and value.

Thomas may be coming from Arkansas, but Fickell probably trusts him more than most who were on the roster last year. They spent three seasons together, and Thomas fits in Fickell’s system like a glove.

“It’s really just like coming home,” Thomas said.

“When I was at Cincinnati, we played dollar, but now that we’re here we’re playing a lot more nickel and other things. It’s kind of the same concepts so it hasn’t been that hard of a transition, but still I have to study and watch a whole lot of film.”

Last season, it took time for the transfer students to play with a sense of comfort. The same could happen once again for the fresh crop of newbies. But if there’s any new player with a chance to walk in and immediately seem like he’s been a Badger for years, it’s Thomas.

If there’s any obstacle standing in Thomas’s path to instant , it could be the talent around him.

He’s entering one of the deepest position groups on the roster. Jake Chaney is a veteran who played the fourth most snaps on the defense last season. Christian Alliegro and Tackett Curtis are younger athletic freaks who surely need reps. The coaches simply don’t have enough available snaps to go around.

However, Thomas feels like one of the few certainties in the defensive rotation. It’ll be too hard to keep him off the field.

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