{"id":946280,"date":"2026-07-15T15:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T15:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/946280\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T15:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T15:18:15","slug":"vikings-film-breakdown-studying-rookie-safety-jakobe-thomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/946280\/","title":{"rendered":"Vikings Film Breakdown: Studying Rookie Safety Jakobe Thomas"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Vikings navigated free agency and the 2026 NFL Draft, bringing in players from the pro and college ranks, we’ve taken a deeper look at newcomers’ games \u2014 the ways they’ve stood out; why their fit with Minnesota makes sense; and what was said about them in early evaluations, and more recently. We previously studied free-agent signings Kyler Murray<\/a>, James Pierre<\/a> and Jauan Jennings<\/a>. Now, the club’s Top 5 draft picks: Caleb Banks<\/a>, Jake Golday<\/a>, Domonique Orange<\/a>, Caleb Tiernan and Jakobe Thomas. These features are intended to present the skills and backgrounds of players new to the Vikings fan base.<\/p>\n

With Round 2 of the draft underway on a Friday night toward the end of April, the Vikings dealt former team captain and Pro Bowl outside linebacker Jonathan Greenard to the Eagles in exchange for a pair of third-round picks \u2014 one this year, one the next. Only a few hours later, using half of the capital acquired from Philadelphia, the team selected safety Jakobe Thomas out of Miami with the 98th selection, right after taking Tiernan at 97. Thomas was the fourth defender drafted by Minnesota among its five Top 100 choices this cycle, and the sixth at his position, following Caleb Downs (11th), Dillon Thieneman (25th), Emmanuel McNeil-Warren (58th), Bud Clark (64th) and A.J. Haulcy (78th). Thomas played just one season on the Hurricanes but he made it count tenfold, garnering single-season highs in tackles (76), interceptions (five) and sacks (3.5). His versatility was leveraged by Defensive Coordinator Corey Hetherman (former Gophers DC) \u2014 354 free safety snaps, 283 in the box, 98 at slot cornerback and 36 on the line of scrimmage, per Pro Football Focus \u2014 and his dynamism was infinitely important to Miami consummating its first national championship game appearance since 2003. Thomas initially developed at Middle Tennessee State from 2021-23 and transferred to Tennessee in 2024. Across 53 collegiate games, he tallied 206 tackles and nine INTs (his first four in ’22), including two returned for touchdowns.<\/p>\n

The Tullahoma, Tennessee, native Thomas is a smidge over 6-foot-1 and weighs 211 pounds. He has the mentality and size to withstand and enforce contact anywhere on the field, as well as an appreciation for physicality that really can’t be coached. When Thomas arrived for Vikings Rookie Minicamp in May, he mentioned during an interview with Vikings.com that iconic safeties Kam Chancellor and Troy Polamalu were two players he especially loved to watch. A younger version of Thomas likely would “be screaming” about him ending up in Minnesota, he shared, “because I used to walk around my house every day in an Adrian Peterson jersey.” Furthermore, Thomas described his phone call on draft day as “the best feeling ever” and emphasized he was “smiling cheek-to-cheek for the next 7 hours” after speaking with coaches.<\/p>\n

One of nine Miami players drafted this year, Thomas is the 17th ‘Canes product ever picked by the Vikings \u2014 first in the third round, by the way \u2014 and the first since receiver K.J. Osborn in the fifth round in 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Vikings navigated free agency and the 2026 NFL Draft, bringing in players from the pro and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2073],"tags":[7,28567,233,259,2529,1025,1219,6,234],"class_list":["post-946280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-vikings","tag-football","tag-jakobe-thomas","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-minnesotavikings","tag-news-index","tag-news-team","tag-nfl","tag-vikings"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116924665264060787","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946280","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=946280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}