Demaryius Thomas made quite a splash last Sunday in his rookie debut. I thought Dez Bryant had a great first game, but Demaryius Thomas’ was even better. The 8/97/1 line says all you need to know, but here are a few other tidbits I learned from watching the game:

(1) Demaryius Thomas is fast, very fast. According to the announcers, Josh McDaniels indicated that he was the fastest player on the team (although a Denver Post article quoted McDaniels as saying that Thomas was “among” the fastest on the team). He supposedly timed an unofficial 4.38 40 during a work out before the foot injury (which if true, might make him the fastest Bronco after all), but I was skeptical about that time as I would be of any unofficial time.

(2) He is quick getting in and out of breaks, especially for a big man.

(3) He has the potential to be targeted heavily, a PPR machine a la Brandon Marshall. He’s not just a long ball hitter. He caught a number of screens and other short passes and was effective at it. On his first catch in fact (a bubble screen), he looked an awful lot like Brandon Marshall exploding down the field for 18 yards after the catch. He even worked the middle of the field a bit.

(4) Speaking of Marshall, Demaryius Thomas too is a really big target. You can get that just looking at his specs at 6-3 229 lbs (compared to Marshall’s 6-4, 230), but that fact really jumps off the screen.

Ok, logic tells me that its way too early in his career to get too excited, but I got to tell you, I’m drooling over him right now so I’m throwing logic out the window. After this breakout performance, its too late to get him at the deep discount where you might have been able to get him over the summer, but its not too late to get him at a value, at least I don’t think it is. Of course, value is relative, and by “value”, I mean trading Knowshon Moreno straight up for him (who despite scoring lots of fantasy points, continues to look as sluggish and ordinary as he looked last year running the ball). If you have that chance, do it, and do it now. I’ll let you know how that goes in the one league that I have Moreno. Of course, I wish I had Thomas in more leagues, and I had the impression I already owned him in a bunch of leagues. In reality, though, I only have him in 4 out of 25....so far.

Needless to say, I’m feeling much better about trading two seemingly late 2011 first rounders for him in the FFPC $1250 Dynasty League in June (after a summer of second guessing the trade due to the lingering foot injury).