Matt Rhule shouts out former Alabama snapper Thomas Fletcher as the Panthers' best two-sport star

Some of the top players in the NFL are known for playing multiple sports growing up, especially through high school. It’s something Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rhule looks for within the players they draft and the organization followed that philosophy during the 2022 NFL Draft.

While discussing his new rookies and their skills, the third-year Panthers head coach shared that former Alabama long-snapper Thomas Fletcher is probably the team’s best two-sport athlete.

“I think Fletch, he’s a really good golfer,” Rhule said.

After heading to Bama as the top long-snapping prospect in the country out of IMG Academy, Thomas Fletcher had a perfect career with the Crimson Tide. He won the Patrick Mannelly Award for best long snapper in the country in 2020. The Panthers drafted him No. 222 overall in the sixth round.

Although an injury sidelined him for the 2021 season, Fletcher is healthy and ready to contribute in 2022.

Rhule reveals how playing multiple sports benefits college athletes

After another rookie minicamp on Sunday, Rhule talked about how he thinks playing multiple sports can benefit players as they work their way toward the NFL. He talked about how it’s hard to play football all year round when you compared it to something like basketball and playing other sports can keep your competitive fire.

“Well, I think growing up, the hand-eye coordination, tracking the ball,” Rhule started. “You’ll hear a lot of old coaches talk about how they miss having guys playing baseball. They used to play football and baseball. Now, it’s track but playing centerfield, tracking the ball, all those different things, they kind of miss a little bit in today’s football. When you’re a football player coming up, you can’t really play football in the offseason. Like, if you’re a basketball player you can play AAU, you can do all of those things. If you’re a football player — now, 7 on 7 has been coming along which is great. Developing skills but there’s something about walking out onto the mat, onto the court, onto wherever and winning and losing. Competing, working as a teammate.”

Rhule believes quickness versus speed gets developed by playing another non-football sport.

“As a football player, the hand-eye coordination, the lateral quickness,” Rhule continued. “We talk a lot about the 40-yard dashes, we spend a lot of time looking at people’s short shuffles, three cones. Like how quick, how explosive. You can be fast but you may not be very quick and vice versa. I think a lot of those things are developed early on for kids as they play different sports. Then, they come to football and they love to tackle or don’t. They have to hit or they don’t. I just thought it was good.”

On3’s Griffin McVeigh contributed to this report.