02-25-2025, 11:11 AM -
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6141640...mas-perry/
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.
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.
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 torturous 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.
This is Thomas “The Tank” Perry.
His best friends call him “TP” — Total Package.
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 rode 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.
“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.
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.
.........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.
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.
Would love to see this guy as a late 7th or undrafted free agent. Seems like worth taking a look. Go get him Dan. He's a dog!
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.
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.
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 torturous 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.
This is Thomas “The Tank” Perry.
His best friends call him “TP” — Total Package.
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 rode 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.
“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.
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.
.........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.
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.
Would love to see this guy as a late 7th or undrafted free agent. Seems like worth taking a look. Go get him Dan. He's a dog!
This post was last modified: 02-25-2025, 11:12 AM by Ladypanther.
