The Opening Drive 3/26: Daniel Thomas's Role Can Be More Than Special Teams Ace

How the veteran will try to fill multiple voids on the Browns roster.

DETROIT, MI - DECEMBER 04: Daniel Thomas #2 of the Detroit Lions lines up before the snap during an NFL football game against the Dallas Cowboys at Ford Field on December 4, 2025 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images)

The Browns needed to add more to their core specials teams unit and they needed another veteran safety to fill the role left by Rayshawn Jenkins and they seem to have found both in Daniel Thomas.

Thomas hails from Montgomery, Alabama and was forged at Auburn. He came into the league the way most long shots do: fifth round, pick 157, the kind of selection that gets announced while most fans have already switched away from the draft for the weekend. The Jaguars took him in 2020, and what followed was five seasons of doing the unglamorous work that keeps rosters intact. Blocked punts. Coverage units. Showing up on 480 of 526 snaps for special teams in back-to-back seasons.

He grabbed a Ben Roethlisberger interception early in his career and returned it 53 yards, then watched injuries chip away at the seasons that followed — an arm, a forearm, a hamstring, an Achilles — the kind of recurring physical toll that would quietly end careers that never got fully started.

But Thomas kept coming back. In March 2024, Jacksonville rewarded that loyalty with a two-year extension worth up to $6 million. Then, in the final cuts of August 2025, they let him go anyway — the cold math of roster construction that has nothing to do with character or effort.

Within 24 hours, Detroit called. He landed with the Lions, reunited with secondary coach DeShea Townsend, and picked right back up where he left off: special teams ace, backup safety, the kind of pro who makes the players around him better without ever making the Monday morning highlight reel. Another forearm injury cut his Lions season short in Week 3, but he returned, closed out the year with 23 tackles across 12 games, and kept moving.

Let’s dig into his 2025 impact and how the Browns are likely to use him.

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It’s safe to say that Thomas will be used in the “gunner” role in punt team situations, as a gunner-jammer out wide in punt return, and then as a contain and alley player on kickoff teams. He is clearly very versatile with appropriate speed, quickness, and strength to play through contact. This is a core part of his duties coming in 2026.