Film room: Shutdown Seminole Azareye’h Thomas

Diving into what the Florida State product could bring to the Raiders

Previously, Silver and Black Pride highlighted a few long-armed cornerbacks in the 2025 NFL Draft class who fit new Las Vegas Raiders head coach Pete Carroll’s profile. One of the most recognizable names listed is Florida State’s Azareye’h Thomas.

The 32⅜-inch armed former Seminole gained notoriety for his strong performance at the Senior Bowl practices back in January, but his outing in Mobile just highlighted what he had been doing all season.

According to Pro Football Focus, Thomas allowed just 17 completions on 33 targets (51.5 completion percentage) and 141 yards in 12 games last season while giving up more than 20 yards in a single outing just once. That resulted in 8.3 yards per reception yielded, which led all ACC cornerbacks with at least 110 coverage snaps.

Thomas fits the mold of the shutdown corner the Raiders have been looking for over the last few years, so let’s dive into the tape and see what he could bring to Las Vegas.

Thomas is at his best in press coverage where he can take advantage of those long arms. In the clip above, he’s on the single-receiver side of a three-by-one formation from Duke while Florida State plays Cover 3. That puts him one-on-one in man coverage with the wideout at the top of the screen where he has the freedom to play press if he wants.

Off the line of scrimmage, the wideout tries to use a physical release. However, Thomas quickly gets his hands up to fight back and has the size (6-foot-1.5 and 197 pounds) and strength to stay on balance through the contact. That allows the corner to stay in phase and drive on the slant route, making a great play through the receiver’s back to get a PBU.

This next clip is almost the same as the last one and, in full disclosure, Thomas does get flagged for the shoulder tug as he tries to make a play on the ball. But this is another quality press coverage rep against a slant as he was in a great position to defend the route and didn’t need to commit the foul.

Obviously, the Florida State product needs to clean this up by getting less grabby, but there’s plenty to work with from this rep.

We’ll dive into one more goal line rep before moving on to the open field.

Thomas is playing soft press coverage here, meaning he doesn’t try to jam the receiver. He does a great job keeping his hips square to the line of scrimmage and waits until the receiver commits to the fade route before opening his hips.

Then, Thomas gets attached to his man at the goal line to contest the catch at the catch point. While he doesn’t get the PBU here, he uses his size and strength to force the receiver wide and out of bounds for another incompletion.

We’re moving onto the red zone and get another quality press coverage rep from the former Seminole.

This is an additional example of how patient Thomas is when it comes to opening his hips at the line of scrimmage. The receiver tries to use a jab step to sell the outside release off the line, but the corner doesn’t budge and waits until the receiver commits to the inside release before turning and running.

Then, Thomas uses his hands to jam the wideout and stay perfectly in phase against the dig route. The quarterback tries to throw it anyway but Thomas is in a perfect position to contest the grab and rip the wideout’s hands at the catch point for one more incompletion.

Another reason why Thomas can blanket receivers and be a shutdown corner is he has impressive hip fluidity.

In the clip above, he’s in man coverage again and gets a hard inside release from the receiver. Thomas responds by opening his hips slightly toward the middle of the field, but the receiver pivots to the outside before working back to the inside and completing his release. Meanwhile, Thomas seamlessly flips his hips from one sideline to the other and stays attached to his man against the deep corner route.

So, while the cornerback couldn’t land his hands on the jam attempt here, his hip fluidity allowed him to overcome that and stay in phase.

Obviously, this is a run play. But it’s an RPO where the pass play is a quarterback rollout to the right and he’ll look to hit one of the receivers on a go route. Notice how the offensive linemen are run blocking but none of them work up to the second level and both receivers run routes.

Meanwhile, Thomas has an excellent press coverage rep at the bottom of the screen. This is another good example of his strength as the receiver barely gets off the line of scrimmage and stumbles down the field while getting pushed out of bounds on his route.

The Florida State product lost some draft buzz with a bad 40-yard dash time (4.58 seconds) and his pro day. However, reps like this one where he can beat receivers up at the line of scrimmage is a great way to overcome that.

Overall, Thomas’ long speed is a question mark given the 40-time mentioned above. But his tape doesn’t show him getting beaten deep (not often, at least), and his draft stock cooling down could work in the Raiders’ favor. If he slides into the second round and is available at pick No. 37, it wouldn’t be surprising for Las Vegas to take a chance on the 20-year-old’s (turns 21 in July) potential.