Latest news with #ThomasPerry
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Middlebury's Thomas Perry invited to an NFL rookie minicamp tryout. Find out which team.
Thomas Perry's NFL dreams remain alive. The Baltimore Ravens have invited the All-American offensive lineman from Division III Middlebury College to their rookie minicamp tryout, Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network reported on his Twitter page Sunday morning. Advertisement Perry, who was not among the 257 players selected during the 2025 NFL Draft, will now get a chance to earn a roster spot with the Ravens during rookie tryouts in early May. The 6-foot-3, 317-pound Perry is a native of Killingworth, Conn. During his time with the Middlebury Panthers, Perry made nearly all of his 30 starts at left guard; in the NFL, he's projected as a center. With the Panthers, Perry was a member of the 2023 NESCAC championship team and was a three-time first team offensive selection for the conference (2022-24). This past fall, Perry earned All-America honors from AFCA, and Walter Camp Division III. Perry is a molecular biology and biochemistry major with a 3.92 grade-point average Advertisement Perry's stock rose earlier this winter when he was a standout at the 100th East-West Shrine Bowl, the lone player from a D-III school to attend. Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@ Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter: @aabrami5. This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Thomas Perry, lineman out of Middlebury, invited to rookie minicamp
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
NFL Draft: Is Thomas Perry the most unlikely pick in this year's class?
Shortly before he turned 16, Thomas Perry surprised his parents with a very unusual request for a birthday present. At the same age that many kids beg for a trendy car or truck to drive, Perry asked for a single oversized tractor tire. Amused but curious, Perry's dad asked his son why exactly he wanted the tire. Advertisement 'So I can flip it up and down the road,' the young offensive lineman responded matter-of-factly. The monstrous tire that the family acquired weighed several hundred pounds and came up to Perry's chest. Flipping it end-over-end became a staple of Perry's workouts, first around his cul de sac, then to the main road and back and eventually a mile and a half to and from the center of his small, rural Connecticut hometown. 'He would push himself harder and harder,' his mom Karen told Yahoo Sports. Stories like that help explain how Perry is on the precipice of accomplishing a remarkable feat. He is the rare 21-year-old with the self discipline and drive to will himself into becoming a legitimate NFL prospect while playing for an academically rigorous Vermont liberal arts college where football dreams aren't supposed to blossom. Advertisement Middlebury College is a member of a conference that doesn't allow its football programs to participate in the NCAA Division III postseason, let alone serve as a pipeline to the NFL. Opportunities for coaches to hold offseason practices or workouts are limited, so it's up to individual players to work by themselves if they want to improve. The most successful athletes that Middlebury has produced are world-class ski racers drawn to the school because of its remote location between the Green Mountains and the Adirondacks. The only former Middlebury football player ever to crack an NFL roster is a place kicker, former Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl champion Stephen Hauschka. Advertisement And yet here is Perry, an interior offensive lineman with enough promise and upside to entice 25 NFL teams to send scouts to western central Vermont this past fall. The 6-foot-3, 317-pound senior is projected as a possible day three NFL draft pick on Saturday after earning an invitation to the East-West Shrine Bowl in February and outperforming pass rushers from powerhouse programs. Should Perry fail to latch on with an NFL team as a late-round pick or an undrafted free agent, he has a heck of a backup career option to pursue. Perry demonstrates the same attention to detail in the classroom that he does on the football field, maintaining a 3.92 GPA as a molecular biology and biochemistry major and mathematics minor. He'll have his choice of medical schools after his football career is over. 'He's a rare human being, man,' Duke Manyweather, a renowned offensive line trainer who has worked with Perry, told Yahoo Sports. 'I've coached future hall of farmers, all-pros, pro-bowlers, highly intellectual players, players from Princeton, players from Yale. This dude is different. I've never seen anything like it.' Middleburys' Thomas Perry (62) more than held his own in the East-West Shrine Bowl against Division I talent. (Courtesy of Middlebury College) (Rodney Wooters) Blame the pandemic How did Middlebury College happen to develop a draft-worthy offensive lineman, a weight-room wonder who might be the strongest player in this year's draft class? Blame the COVID-19 pandemic for derailing the end of Perry's high school career and wreaking havoc on his recruitment. Advertisement Perry was a two-sport standout at Haddam-Killingworth High, a small-town public school in Connecticut's lowest-enrollment division. As a junior, Perry earned all-league honors as an undersized 6-foot-1, 250-pound offensive lineman and took third in the heavyweight division of the 2020 state open wrestling tournament. That was supposed to be a springboard for a big senior year. Then the pandemic hit. Out of nowhere, the spread of COVID-19 wiped out the spring and summer camp circuit before Perry's senior year and canceled his final season of high school football as well. The only film that Perry had to show would-be recruiters was video highlights from his junior season at Haddam-Killingworth. Advertisement 'If it weren't for COVID, I think he probably would have been off to an Ivy League school or maybe UConn,' Perry's dad Scott told Yahoo Sports. Instead, those schools all passed on Perry — even Brown, the Ivy League program where his dad and uncle both played. The most desirable remaining options were academically prestigious D-III programs, schools where Perry could fulfill his goals as a football player and a science major. Middlebury especially appealed to Perry because of the abundant nearby ski slopes and hiking and mountain biking trails. When Middlebury coach Doug Mandigo watched clips from Perry's junior season, he was impressed but not awed. Advertisement 'His film was good,' Mandigo said, but 'it was a bad level and he was undersized.' The deciding factor was that Perry was an ideal academic fit. 'He had a great high school transcript, he was a good player on film and he was looking for this kind of environment,' Mandigo said. 'We were one of the only D-III schools to offer.' Thomas Perry earned first-team all-league honors three times at Middlebury College. (Courtesy of Middlebury College) (Will Costello) 'This kid is different' It took all of one day for the Middlebury football coaches to recognize that they had unearthed a hidden gem. Perry arrived on campus standing an inch and a half taller and carrying 25 more pounds of muscle than he had when he last visited the previous year. Advertisement His first session in the weight room remains legendary at Middlebury. Other staffers barged into offensive line coach Dave Caputi's office to tell him he had to come see how much the new kid was lifting. 'He showed up the strongest kid in our program,' Caputi told Yahoo Sports. The run-heavy Wing-T system that Perry's high school coach favored did not prepare him for pass protection on downfield throws, but he worked tirelessly when he came to Middlebury to overcome that learning curve. When Mandigo would take his son to campus for early Saturday morning skating sessions at the hockey rink, he'd often find Perry hard at work inside the school's fieldhouse doing pass protection drills by himself. The strict diet that Perry has followed since late in his junior year of high school further highlights his self discipline. Eager to consume enough protein and calories to promote muscle growth and weight gain, Perry wolfs down a 12-egg breakfast each morning. He washes that down with three glasses of whole milk, part of his mission to drink a gallon of milk a day. Advertisement Perry's favorite hobby is basically testing the limits of what his body can handle. He loves the stuff normal people dread. He's been known to go on marathon-length solo hikes just for fun or to bike up to 100 miles on mountain terrain. Nowhere is Perry's desire to challenge himself more apparent than in the weight room. He performs feats of strength worthy of powerlifters and strongman competitors. The Middlebury coaches began videoing Perry bench pressing 380 pounds 12 times, squatting nearly 600 pounds or hex-bar deadlifting 725 pounds. 'We were afraid no one was going to believe he could put up those numbers,' Caputi said with a laugh. While Perry broke into Middlebury's starting lineup midway through his freshman season and earned first-team all-league honors the next three years, the extent of his potential became clear as he began to learn to harness his physical gifts. Perry's senior-year film is littered with man-amongst-boys clips of him ragdolling overmatched defensive linemen or redirecting one would-be pass rusher and then stonewalling the next. 'He would bury guys in our league, throttle guys in our league,' Mandigo said. 'Honestly, it was funny to watch at times.' Advertisement A pivotal moment in Perry's development occurred last year when he entered the orbit of one of football's most influential offensive line gurus. Duke Manyweather watched video from Perry's junior season and came away intrigued by the Middlebury offensive lineman's blend of power, agility and all-out hustle. Last July, Perry cut short an internship doing medical research in a lab at Yale to come hone his craft under the tutelage of Manyweather at his facility in Frisco, Texas. For five weeks, Perry trained alongside all-pro NFL linemen like the Philadelphia Eagles' Lane Johnson and top-tier prospects like LSU's Will Campbell. At first, Manyweather noticed members of his training group sizing up Perry with a skeptical eye. The quiet, shy science major from the tiny New England liberal arts school showed up, as Manyweather puts it, 'dressed like somebody's dad.' Perry wore white Nike Monarchs and a solid-colored polo shirt tucked into some khaki pants. The doubts about Perry melted away as soon as the small talk stopped and the training began. Heavy metal music blasting from his headphones, Perry gave maximum effort on every lift, every rep, every drill. He brought the same focus and attention to detail during film breakdowns. Advertisement 'All of a sudden it goes from, 'Who is this awkward kid? to 'Oh s—, this kid's different,'' Manyweather told Yahoo Sports. 'It's almost a Superman transformation. Clark Kent turns into his alter ego.' SUBHEAD Ignored by the major-college and professional ranks when he was a player, Manyweather saw a little of himself in Perry. The former offensive lineman at Division II Humboldt State made it his mission to spread the word about Perry and help get him exposure. Last August, Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy scouted Perry at Manyweather's urging and posted a praiseworthy evaluation to social media. Perry 'is going to blow up the Combine next March,' Nagy tweeted, adding that it was 'scary to think what he'll do to poor D3 kids' during his senior season. The endorsement from Nagy turned heads in the scouting community, as did Perry headlining Bruce Feldman's annual college football Freaks list a few days later. Soon after that, NFL scouts began arranging visits to come watch Perry in person and began peppering Mandigo with questions about how he recruited Perry to Middlebury and about his upside. Advertisement Scouts had enough interest in seeing Perry face stronger competition that two college all-star games both included him on their midseason watch lists. When the Senior Bowl only selected Perry as an alternate, the Middlebury offensive lineman accepted an invitation to be the only D-III player at the East-West Shrine Bowl. A week of practices in front of NFL scouts offered Perry the platform that he needed to prove that he wasn't a product of lackluster competition. Playing center for the first time after lining up almost exclusively at left guard during college, Perry still more than held his own against top pass rushers from Georgia, Florida, Nebraska and other big-name programs. 'I told everyone he wasn't going to embarrass himself, and, sure as s—, he had a great showing,' Manyweather said. 'It was him getting on guys and they couldn't do anything. He was ending the fight before it even started with some of his aggressive sets.' Advertisement Those close to Perry envision him as more of a high-upside developmental prospect than one who is ready to contribute to an NFL team right away. They liken him to a college sophomore in terms of football experience, given the loss of his final high school season and Middlebury's nine-game seasons and limited offseason practice opportunities. Where will Perry be selected on Saturday? As always, it's difficult to say. The feedback that Manyweather has received has been anywhere from the fifth to seventh round. The volume of phone calls about Perry has picked up this week, Manyweather said. NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport described Perry on Tuesday as 'a small school sleeper … generating a ton of buzz.' Only a handful of current NFL players have made the leap from Division III to pro football. None have taken a more improbable path than Perry. Even Mandigo admits that Middlebury producing an NFL-caliber prospect 'might never happen again.' If Perry beats the odds, it will be because of his self discipline as much as his talent. Advertisement Manyweather is the sort of rare bird who arrives at work every morning at 4 a.m. He usually gets a morning workout in and then gets everything prepped for the rest of his workday. Imagine Manyweather's surprise this winter when Perry also began showing up to the facility by 4:15 a.m. every morning. He would use the hyperbaric chamber or the light beds and prepare his body for the training group's 6 a.m. workout. 'He was there every single morning,' Manyweather said, 'and at first it would piss me off because I like that time in the morning to be my time.' Eventually, Manyweather came to realize that Perry was his type of person, focused, hard working and determined. 'He's incredibly disciplined,' Manyweather said. 'That discipline in everything he does is what is going to set him apart.'
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
What scouts are saying about Thomas Perry: Middlebury College's NFL Draft hopeful
Thomas Perry made school history as Middlebury College's first three-time All-American and first participant at the East-West Shrine Bowl. Perry hopes the firsts continue this week and his name is one of the 257 players called during the 2025 NFL Draft. The draft's first round is Thursday, April 24, in Green Bay, Wisconsin; it continues Friday with rounds 2 and 3 and concludes Saturday with rounds 4-7. Advertisement Middlebury has yet to have a player drafted into the NFL. Alumnus Stephen Hauschka had a long career as a kicker in the NFL that included winning a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks in 2014, but he was a free-agent acquisition after the draft was complete. Perry is a 6-foot-3, 317-pound offensive lineman who is considered a potential Day 3 selection by several NFL Draft experts and analysts. Thomas Perry's career at Middlebury College A native of Killingworth, Connecticut, Perry was a longtime starter at left guard for the Panthers (made 30 starts). He was a member of the 2023 NESCAC championship team and was a three-time first team offensive selection for the conference (2022-24). Advertisement As a senior, Perry earned All-America honors from AFCA, and Walter Camp Division III. Perry, who is a molecular biology and biochemistry major with an 3.92 grade-point average, was the program's first invitee to the East-West Shrine Bowl after the 2024 season, and he was also the only player to attend from Division III. His nickname is "Thomas the Tank." Thomas Perry at the 2025 East-West Shrine Bowl At the 100th edition of the East-West Shrine Bowl in January, Perry switched from guard to center and caught the attention of NFL scouts, including Dane Brugler of The Athletic. Brugler said Perry is "one of the strongest players in the draft. Tireless worker. Just needs reps and development." Advertisement "With only three weeks at center under his belt, Thomas showed that he belongs on this stage," Duke Manyweather, Perry's trainer, told Middlebury athletics. "He handled this positional transition extremely well and I am very proud of him. Thomas is a special human and player, and now the world is starting to see these qualities. I've coached a lot of professionals and I've never seen a player go as viral as Thomas has this quickly." The Athletic also wrote a detailed feature on Perry that was published this winter. Thomas Perry's stock for the 2025 NFL Draft Here's a sampling of what NFL Draft analysts are saying about Perry: Advertisement Bleacher Report: A developmental prospect for the fifth round who is an untested, undersized center who dominated on film. Has combination of raw power, athleticism and intangibles. Could carve out role on a rookie contract. Bleacher Reporter also ranked Perry 24th among interior linemen in the draft. ESPN: Called a "hidden gem" because of his strength, lower-body flexibility, versatility and football IQ. One AFC area scout said this about Perry: "Talk to the kid, you're impressed with all of it. I'll say in our meetings there's a place for this guy and let's see what he becomes." The Athletic: Brugler ranks Perry as the 11th prospect among the 70 centers in the draft. "(H)e is wired the right way with the intelligence, athleticism and power worth the investment," Brugler wrote. Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@ Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter: @aabrami5. This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: NFL scouts on draft prospect Thomas Perry of Middlebury College
New York Times
25-02-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
The smartest, toughest 2025 NFL Draft prospect you've likely never seen play
When Thomas Perry turned 16, he asked his parents for a very specific birthday gift: one oversized truck tire. Not four tires. Or an actual truck. Scott and Karen Perry had heard about Gen Zers having no desire to drive themselves anywhere upon turning 16, but this was different. Their son — who took marathon-length trail hikes, alone, for fun — was as anti-trend as it got. Advertisement After asking him to repeat his request, Scott, amused but also now genuinely curious, inquired as to why, exactly, Thomas wanted one gigantic truck tire. 'So I can flip it,' Thomas replied excitedly, 'and push it up and down the road.' Rule No. 1 for being a football player is you have to love all parts of being a football player — even the stuff most dread. Football players, the real ones, live for the strain. And Middlebury Division III All-American offensive lineman Thomas Perry, arguably the strongest player in the 2025 NFL Draft, from a school small enough to lose on a map, is a real one. GO DEEPER 2025 NFL Draft Big Board: Who are the top 100 prospects in this year's class? He's the son of two lawyers, both of whom were both college athletes. His uncle is in the football Hall of Fame at Brown. His grandmother was a professional dancer who could throw smoke from any pitcher's mound (and from any arm angle) — the best athlete in a family of highly intelligent, highly able humans. Perry studied molecular biology and mathematics at Middlebury, carried a 3.92 GPA and will be a doctor one day. He's done 28 reps of 250 pounds (and 12 of 380) on the bench, has a near-600-pound squat, a 715-pound deadlift and explosion numbers in the 98th percentile for his position. He also can do the splits. A 'one in a million' weight room wonder with power everywhere and the flexibility of someone a hundred pounds lighter, the 6-foot-2, 311-pound Perry was an elite wrestler in high school. He speaks about the tortuous hours spent inside his team's sweat-soaked, foul-smelling wrestling room the same way the rest of us might talk about our favorite things to do at the beach. Why do you love this stuff so much — the stuff so many others absolutely hate? 'Because it's hard,' Perry laughs, fully understanding some might not believe him. He is a completely self-made player who willed himself into being a potential draft diamond through a work ethic that's made even the most seasoned pro trainers take pause. Perry could be the NFL's next version of Quinn Meinerz, an All-Pro guard the Denver Broncos drafted from DIII obscurity. Advertisement This is Thomas 'The Tank' Perry. His best friends call him 'TP' — Total Package. High achievers don't get burdened with life's complications like everyone else. They're not immune to misfortune, they just tend to hit first. Like the rest of the world, life tried to get Thomas Perry in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic wiped out most of his senior year of high school, including his athletic calendar. In another world, Perry might've continued his family legacy at Brown. His father had been an All-Ivy League player for the Bears; his uncle Bill was an All-American defensive lineman and a member of Brown's Hall of Fame and its 125th anniversary team. (Thomas wore No. 67 in college in honor of Bill, who died in 2017 after an eight-year fight with cancer — six years longer than doctors thought possible.) Three of his cousins have played football at Brown, too. At the pandemic's onset, Perry was a 6-1, 260-pound athlete who displayed elite strength in multiple sports at tiny Haddam-Kilingworth, a member of Connecticut's smallest classification. He also was one of the school's brightest students. And despite the fact his strength numbers would've stacked up with any prep athlete in the Northeast, the lack of exposure left him completely off all recruiting radars. Others may have panicked. Perry never blinked. When gyms closed, he grabbed his mountain bike and road it 100 miles. He went on endless hikes, some nearly 30 miles long and usually by himself because no one else could keep up with the distance. Training, eating (a lot) and sleeping are a few of his many passions. Enjoying those activities in nature is another. So when Middlebury, an academically elite Division III liberal arts college near Vermont's Green Mountains, became the first and only college football program to offer him a spot ahead of the 2021 season, he packed his bags and never looked back. Advertisement To understand Perry is to know the popular 'Two Guys on a Bus' meme about perspective. The guy on the left is depressed as his window shows only the dark side of a mountain; the guy on the right is smiling ear to ear as his window reveals a wide-open, sun-soaked valley. From a football standpoint, Middlebury offered Perry very little. But for what he wanted in his life, Middlebury had everything — plus a chance to keep playing ball. Perry is always the guy on the sunny side of the bus. 'I committed the day after they offered me,' says Perry, who essentially sees the challenge of the pandemic as something that led to the best decision of his life. 'It's been amazing. I'm majoring in molecular biology and biochemistry, with a math minor, and I get to look out my window and see the Green Mountains. 'I love it there.' To say the feeling's mutual would be an understatement. 'I'm 66 years old, I've been coaching in this league my entire career and have coached some incredibly impressive kids here, both in the classroom and on the field,' says Middlebury offensive line coach Dave Caputi, who also spent 16 years as head coach at DII Bowdoin. 'He's the most unique kid I've had.' It took Middlebury's staff less a week to realize Perry might be the most talented prospect they'd ever had. He weighed in around 260 pounds when Middlebury offered him. By the time he reported to his first fall camp, he was up to 275. During his sophomore season, now at 300 pounds, he landed a broad jump of nearly 10 feet, with equally impressive agility numbers that would've placed well at that year's NFL combine. Most college strength coaches expect youngsters to break in the weight room. That's the idea — you break bad habits and replace them with good ones. No one has ever been able to find Perry's breaking point. He's a walking good habit. Advertisement As part of the New England Small College Athletic Conference, Middlebury plays a nine-game schedule with no spring ball and a reduced training camp, so most of Perry's ridiculous strength gains happened on his own time. Some of his lift numbers were so crazy for a Division III player that Middlebury staffers were concerned scouts wouldn't believe them without video. His presence on the field at guard was even more impressive, as Perry earned all-conference honors as a sophomore and junior before earning multiple All-America nods in 2024 as Division III's most physically dominant player. Perry is the only player in Middlebury history to earn an invite to either the Shrine Bowl or Senior Bowl (he participated in the former). His college tape is effortlessly dominant, as Perry glides around the field with elite bend, maintaining power and recovery (not that he needs the latter much) from any angle and routinely finishes defensive linemen through the ground. It's not uncommon to see Perry decleat a tackle on his way to doing the same thing to a linebacker. There are several reps on which Perry pulls down the line on a trap or to lead on power, and his punch is so explosive it looks like the defender might snap in half. For Middlebury, he's been the perfect student-athlete. Perry's impact on the program — how players train, how they view themselves and their playing futures — has been immeasurable. No other interior offensive lineman in this draft can make a similar claim. 'He's elevated how the guys think of themselves as students and football players here because he's so accomplished and just a great human being,' says Caputi, who believes Middlebury's players wound up respecting Perry even more because of how well he carried academics alongside football. 'He's just the kind of person you want to be associated with.' Duke Manyweather has never been afraid of the hard way. He grew up near Compton in Los Angeles. He was an undersized center, a captain at DII Humboldt State, then briefly tried coaching before finding his calling in specialized training for offensive linemen. Over the last decade, Manyweather has trained some of the sport's best linemen. He went from an unknown to the first call for anyone in football — player, agent, coach, parent, reporter, whatever — looking for insight on play in the trenches. No one watches more film than Big Duke. No one gets up earlier in the morning. Advertisement Except for Thomas Perry. Still an undersized lineman, Perry (6-2, 311 with 31 5/8-inch arms), has awoken in a hotel room near Dallas almost every morning since the 2024 season ended. The second thing he sees after his eyes open is a piece of paper with a question on it: 'How are you going to get better today?' It'd be the first thing he sees, but Perry didn't want to upset hotel staff by hanging something from his room's ceiling. Perry found Manyweather and his touted, Texas-based 'OL Masterminds' program when his dad emailed Manyweather shortly after the close of the 2023 season. He hit 'send' on Thomas' 21st birthday, figuring landing his son a chance to work with the world's best OL tutor was a better present than a second truck tire. When Scott Perry first shared with Manyweather some of Thomas' lift numbers, the coach — just as Caputi had predicted once upon a time — asked for video proof. The next time the two spoke, Manyweather asked Thomas Perry to join his program in Texas full time for the summer. My guy Thomas Perry Rolling!!! 18.5mph on the @SHREDmillSpeed @just_BryanM — Duke Manyweather (@BigDuke50) February 3, 2025 'He's one in a million,' says Rob Mangino, Perry's private strength coach since high school. 'The first workout we did, I probably heard 'yes, coach' 50 times in an hour. Over and over — 'Yes, coach. What's next?' 'He loves to train. You'll have to pull him back sometimes.' Perry lifts like he plays football: full-tilt. He's never still on a football field. He plays through the echo of every whistle, then sprints back to his huddle after every play, every time. He's never still in a weight room, either. Mangino's training sessions begin with an extensive dynamic warmup, including stretching and mobility drills. Not long after Perry joined Mangino's program, the coach noticed his then-teenaged pupil had started showing up at the gym an hour before every session, so he could do an extra dynamic warmup before the scheduled one … before the lift session that was surely about to ring his body out like a washcloth. Advertisement 'Who does that?' Mangino still asks with wonder. Not long after Perry joined Manyweather's program, word started to leak inside the scouting community that the strongest player in the 2025 NFL Draft might be a kid from a DIII school with an enrollment of fewer than 3,000. Perry was one of the small-school add-ons to Bruce Feldman's annual 'Freaks List' ahead of the 2024 season, and after another year of dominance on a level for which he was too talented, he earned an invite to the Shrine Bowl. (During the game to end that week, it took half the opposing defense to stop him after a catch on a trick-play, two-point conversion attempt.) Perry repped at center for scouts during practices despite having never played there in college. Manyweather gave him a crash course on the position in just three weeks, and Perry absorbed nearly every bit of it. One of the top-performing linemen throughout Shrine week, Perry ended every practice by finding each coach he worked with, shaking their hand and thanking them. 'Let's paint this picture, OK,' Manyweather says. 'Thomas played DIII ball at a school that really isn't a DIII powerhouse, like Wisconsin-Whitewater or (Wisconsin-)La Crosse. They play nine games per year, they practice 20 times for fall camp and don't have spring ball. There are no organized summer workouts. 'Yet, here we have a kid who — literally through his own process — has found a way to go about his business and work like a professional. Every elite guy I've ever worked with, from All-Pros to Hall of Famers, is detail- and process-oriented. That's Thomas. And when you take (his career in context with regard to experience), he's actually like a sophomore, football-wise.' Perry's arguably also the most diligent notetaker Manyweather has ever seen. During one of his group film sessions, Manyweather threw in a joke while discussing a rep, drawing a laugh from most of the room. Perry, though, wrote down the joke in his notebook, not realizing (or caring) that it wasn't part of the lesson. Advertisement And on one of the first days of Manyweather's 2025 draft training camp, when he rolled into the parking lot around 4 a.m. to get an early workout in before the rest of the day started, he found two people standing on the curb, in the dark, waiting for him to unlock the building. One was LSU star Will Campbell, likely OT1 in the upcoming draft. The other, of course, was Thomas The Tank. Perry's future is as uncertain as it's ever been in his life. He's dedicated himself to playing football for as long as he can. Perry doesn't have an invite to the NFL Scouting Combine, and the number of Division III players in the league at the start of last season could be counted on two hands. The uncertainty doesn't bother him, though. It's hard to tell if he even feels it. Many prospects speak about the pre-draft process as the most stressful time in their lives. Perry still can't believe this is happening. He'd do this every day for the rest of his life, if someone let him. GO DEEPER Shrine Bowl takeaways: Which 2025 NFL Draft prospects have raised their stock? 'I'm just a guy who loves training,' Perry says. 'I love that I get to wake up at 4 a.m., hit a triple session, eat a bunch of food, recover and then repeat it the next day. I just love that. 'I'm very thankful for this opportunity and I hope to make the most of it.' Even if Perry doesn't hear his name called this spring, he'll have a strong chance of finding his way onto a team via rookie free agency because his physical gifts are rare. Whenever football's over, Perry simply will do what he always does: He'll adjust — likely in medical school, probably on a campus with a great view. And there, he'll attack his journey toward becoming the world's strongest doctor the same way he attacks everything else: From the sunny side of the bus. (Top photo courtesy of Scott Perry)
