{"id":909910,"date":"2026-06-04T16:39:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T16:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/909910\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T16:39:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T16:39:23","slug":"chiefs-coaches-talk-up-r-mason-thomas-for-get-off-and-gumby-like-bend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/909910\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiefs coaches talk up R Mason Thomas for get-off and \u2018Gumby-like\u2019 bend"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are cliches in football just like in life. When Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has a long-limbed, rock-solid defensive end in his lineup, that\u2019s a \u201cSpags defensive end\u201d to many football fans.<\/p>\n

At this point in Spags\u2019 17-year career as an NFL coordinator or head coach, that feels like an overblown narrative, and the defensive mastermind echoed that sentiment during his press conference after Wednesday\u2019s minicamp practice.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI like to think I just like good football players; they don\u2019t all come in one molded size,\u201d Spagnuolo said after questioning the stereotype.<\/p>\n

The reporter mentioned that \u201cmold\u201d for defensive ends in reference to this year\u2019s second-round pick, edge rusher R Mason Thomas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had really tall\u2026 and we\u2019ve had the other kind too,\u201d Spagsnuolo acknowledged. \u201cR Mason is not the tall, long guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 6 feet 2 inches tall and 241 pounds, Thomas doesn\u2019t meet the cliche, but he isn\u2019t dissimilar from former players coached by Spagnuolo or defensive line coach Joe Cullen. In his own press conference on Wednesday, Cullen made two historical comparisons to emphasize Thomas\u2019s distinctive talent.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe has a unique ability,\u201d Cullen started. \u201cWay back, when I first got in the league, we had Cliff Avril<\/a>. We had Frank [Clark] my first year here\u2026 guys that can bend and get in Gumby-like positions and still be running full speed, he has that ability.\u201d<\/p>\n

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With that rare flexibility for a Chiefs defensive end, it is not the skill that Spagnuolo highlighted when reflecting on the pre-draft evaluation of the organization and general manager Brett Veach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that stuck out to Brett and myself, all the scouts, was his get-off,\u201d Spagnuolo said. \u201cHe\u2019s got a little bit of juice to him, which I think any defense wants and needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The front office had a confident evaluation of the person and the player, thanks to the hiring of running backs coach DeMarco Murray<\/a>, who coached at the University of Oklahoma for the entirety of Thomas\u2019 four-year career in Norman.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime we\u2019re grabbing these guys from college, you don\u2019t have insight on what you can\u2019t see on film; I always think it\u2019s a little bit risky,\u201d Spagnuolo admitted. \u201cDeMarco was great with sharing what he thought of R Mason, and it all kind of became true.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, he\u2019s a team guy,\u201d Murray shared during his press conference on Wednesday. \u201cThat\u2019s the first and foremost thing that\u2019s important now more than ever, when you\u2019re dealing with college and NIL\u2026 having spent the last four years with R Mason, I had a really good understanding of who he was as a person, a player, and went up against him every single day, competed against him at a high level, team captain.\u2026 just a great character guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cUnderstanding that, once I got here, character is everything from top to bottom,\u201d Murray went on. \u201cI knew he would fit right into the locker room. It wasn\u2019t a lot of selling on my end\u2026 he\u2019s a great kid, really, really good effort and a tremendous talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 40th pick in this year\u2019s draft is a unique player in Kansas City, and that has clearly made him stand out to many members of the coaching staff and front office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are cliches in football just like in life. When Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":906309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2063],"tags":[346,13143,22101,14126,7,8578,26606,118,110,2438,2437,6,121851,32197,2890],"class_list":["post-909910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-chiefs","tag-cliff-avril","tag-defensive-ends","tag-demarco-murray","tag-football","tag-icon-sportswire","tag-joe-cullen","tag-kansas-city","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-kansascity","tag-kansascitychiefs","tag-nfl","tag-r-mason","tag-r-mason-thomas","tag-steve-spagnuolo"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116692829185587373","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=909910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/906309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}