Thomas was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 26, 1995. Thomas and his family moved to Sydney, Australia when he was two years old, where he lived for five years. He attended Coppell High School in Coppell, Texas. He had 78 tackles and 12.5 sacks as a senior and 89 tackles with 8.5 sacks as a junior. He was rated as a four-star recruit and was ranked among the top players in his class. He committed to Stanford University to play college football.
College career
After redshirting his first year at Stanford in 2014, Thomas played in all 14 games in 2015, starting six, and had 39 total tackles, 10.5 tackles-for-loss, and 3.5 sacks. In recognition of his successful 2015 season, he was named as an honorable mention All-Pac-12 selection. In 2016, Thomas played and started all 13 games and had 62 total tackles with 15.0 TFL and 8.0 sacks. Thomas was named first team All-Pac-12 and won the Morris Trophy. Following the 2016 season, Thomas declared his intentions to enter the 2017 NFL Draft. He was selected 3rd overall in the draft by the San Francisco 49ers.
College statistics
Professional career
Coming out of Stanford, Thomas was projected to be a first round pick by the majority of analysts and scouts. He was invited to the NFL Scouting Combine, but only chose to participate in the bench, 40-yard dash, vertical, and broad jump. On March 23, 2017, Thomas attended Stanford's pro day, but opted to stand on his combine numbers and only performed positional drills. He was ranked the second best defensive end by NFLDraftScout.com, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated. Pro Football Focus ranked him as the fourth best defensive end in the 2017 NFL Draft. Thomas was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in the first round with the third overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft. He became the third consecutive defensive end drafted in the first round by the 49ers, joining Arik Armstead and DeForest Buckner. The man who drafted Thomas, newly appointed 49ers general managerJohn Lynch, had, by chance, studied alongside Thomas as a mature student while working as a broadcaster for FOX Sports, and counselled Thomas to leave Stanford without knowing he would be in a position to draft him as a member of the 49ers front office the following season. On July 28, 2017, the San Francisco 49ers signed Thomas to a fully guaranteed four-year, $28.14 million contract that includes a signing bonus of $18.61 million. He played in 14 games as a rookie with 12 starts, recording 41 tackles and three sacks. On May 1, 2020, the 49ers declined the fifth-year option on Thomas' contract, making him a free agent in 2021.
