Solomon Thomas says his on-field performance was due to personal issues

Not sure who could play to the best of their ability after going through what he did.

A few of you are ready to give up on Solomon Thomas, but let’s give him one more year. His rookie season wasn’t the greatest, due to a stupid rule that kept him from practicing and his sophomore season wasn’t much better.

In a recent article in the Athletic, Matt Barrows listed the 15 best and worst draft picks of the San Francisco 49ers in the 21st century. The best is your George Kittles and NaVorro Bowmans, and the worsts have your A.J. Jenkins and Giovanni Carmazzis.

Give it a read and you’ll see Solomon Thomas isn’t anywhere on that list. One fan wondered why and tweeted direct at Barrows asking about the omission of the defensive tackle that has been the source of fans’ recent frustration. Barrows responded with this:

For those of you wondering, Thomas’ sister committed suicide January 23 2018. The incident remains a go-to for speculation on why Thomas’ play may have suffered, but there has been no acknowledgement from Thomas himself. Now he admits that tragedy was reason for his play.

Makes sense.

Everyone deals with grief in different ways and not everyone can get their head straight after tragedy in weeks, months, or even a year. If you remember right, then-Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid’s son died in the preseason from a Heroin overdose and there were all sorts of reports of how Reid was dealing with it, all of it ridiculous. How he, Thomas, and anyone else deal with traumatic situations like this is their business and in the wake of these types of tragedies, perhaps a bit of empathy is in order. It may be important to note that Thomas was 22 when this happened.

Thomas definitely is under the microscope, and by comparison, Reid did lose his job to close out that season where his son died, but let’s give Thomas an offseason and a year removed from a terrible tragedy and see what he does before we call him a bust.