San Francisco 49ers: Ranking the 10 most important players in 2018

No. 8: Defensive End Solomon Thomas

Most 49ers fans, including me, will say Solomon Thomas, being the No. 3 pick in the draft last season, did not meet expectations in his rookie year.

San Francisco 49ers

However, while pondering the scary thought of if he was going to be a bust or not, I took a look at the context of this whole situation.

The 49ers had the worst run defense in the league last season. It was terrible — historically bad. John Lynch wanted someone who could fix that, and there was Thomas, a proven run defender at Stanford, sitting right there available at the No. 3 spot.

Fans were expecting this pass-rushing monster because of the Sun Bowl, when Thomas got consistent pressure on then-UNC quarterback Mitchell Trubisky. Since that one game took up a large portion of his highlight tapes online, fans had this expectation of Thomas being a pass-rusher.

The problem with that is that he’s not. He sets the edge on running plays. He makes tackles on running backs, not quarterbacks. And his 41 tackles are what led the 49ers to have the sixth best rushing defense in the league last season, allowing just 3.8 yards per carry to opposing running backs.

From historically bad to top six. Not bad.

The best part is that Thomas is still developing as a player. He is just 22 years old, and defensive linemen often don’t make a huge impact until later on in their careers.

During Week 16 against Jacksonville, I saw Thomas live trying to get to Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette and quarterback Blake Bortles. And he looked big and strong — much bigger and stronger than when I saw him live Week 1 against the Carolina Panthers.

Thomas is bound to take that next step to becoming a dominant force on the front seven soon — and I think that he will next season.