The San Francisco 49ers will welcome first round pick Solomon Thomas to the facility on Thursday, marking the end of his month-long wait to join the team.
The NFL has a rule that prevents draft picks who have not graduated from college from joining their new team until after their school’s final exams end. Stanford final exams end on Wednesday, but Kyle Shanahan confirmed that Thomas has to wait until Thursday to join the team. The 49ers will not have a normal practice that day, instead focusing on team meetings and strength and conditioning work, so Thomas won’t hit the practice field until training camp.
DeForest Buckner said that he has been in touch with Thomas, texting back and forth over the past month. Buckner has offered advice for Thomas to get ready. Buckner also said that Thomas joined the 49ers defensive linemen for a dinner last week. Buckner, Arik Armstead, Ronald Blair, and Eli Harold will be joining Michael Bennett in Hawaii in July for some training, and Buckner said that Thomas will try and join them.
Thomas has been working out on his own at Stanford, and also with former NFL pass rusher DeMarcus Ware. Although he won’t get a practice in on Thursday, I’d imagine the 49ers coaches will have all sorts of information for him, and drills to work on during the six weeks between the end of the offseason workout program and the start of training camp.