\u201cI could see him playing his way into being a first-round draft pick. He\u2019s dependable as a human being. He\u2019s a pro. He came here, and he got bigger and stronger, and he\u2019s the most disruptive interior three-technique to five-technique guys that I\u2019ve been around in a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
This USC<\/a> transfer hopes to fast-track his development during his final collegiate season. Thompkins played in 12 games last fall, totaling 31 tackles, including 6.5 for loss and three sacks. He possesses traits Alabama has traditionally valued up front: a quick first step, leverage and disruptive interior versatility.<\/p>\n At USC, he flashed the ability to penetrate gaps and collapse pockets, even while playing within an inconsistent defensive structure. Alabama needs a steady presence at the point of attack after losing several impact players, including two pass rushers who transferred to Ohio State<\/a> this offseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI could see him playing his way into being a first-round draft pick. He\u2019s dependable as a human…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":720637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[78781,78782,3792,5],"class_list":["post-720636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-alabama-crimson-tide-baseball","tag-alabama-crimson-tide-basketball","tag-alabama-crimson-tide-football","tag-baseball"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116714841286117151","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=720636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/720637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}