Two undersized speedy receivers, both drafted in the 4th round.  What's interesting about Mike Thomas is that after having among the best hands in the league his rookie season, his hands got progressively worse the rest of his career.  He went from catching most of his passes to eventually catching less than half of the attempts in 2011.  Ace Sanders came into the draft with a reputation of never dropping anything, but has obviously his share of drops already this season.  Mike Thomas was somewhat quick his rookie year before he became horrible, but never as quick as Sanders.  Mike Thomas is also slightly bigger.  I'm thinking he was around 190 his rookie year, vs 178 lb Sanders.  Thomas had a decent first two seasons, before he got worse, got paid, and continued to get worse.  As of now, stat wise, they are pretty close. 

 

So who has the better career? 

 

Usually, you have to wait until the 2nd year to get a good feel for a player (eg. Cecil Shorts), so it's possible his production increases significantly his second year as Thomas' did.  You also have to take into account he'll likely have a better QB throwing to him than Thomas ever had.   Most of Thomas' success came with David Garrard, and if our future QB isn't better than Garrard we've got some problems.   On the flip side, all of Ace Sander's production so far comes from quarterbacks clearly worse than Garrard.

 

Mike Thomas 2009: 48/63 receptions, 453 yards, 9.1 avg, 1 TD

Ace Sanders 2013: 16/31 receptions, 182 yards, 11.0 avg, 0 TD

 

1st rounder comparisons:

Percy Harvin 2009: 60/91 receptions, 790 yards, 13.2 avg, 6 TD

Tavon Austin 2013: 31/49 receptions, 207 yards, 6.7 avg, 2 TD

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