Few, if any, NFL owners and executives valued speed as much as Al Davis when he was running the Raiders. When the team selected Tennessee wide receiver Dont’e Thornton Jr. in the fourth round of the 2025 NFL Draft, it was hard not to think that Davis would have approved of the selection.
Thornton blew everyone away at the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine when he posted a 40-yard dash time of 4.30 seconds. That number only gets more impressive when you realize Thornton measures at 6-foot-5 and 205 pounds.
That combination of size and speed is rare, and current Raiders owner Mark Davis said his father would have loved Thornton.
“Mark joked that was the Al Davis pick of this draft,” Spytek told the team’s official website. “The height, weight, speed, raw traits, athleticism, speed, and I think it’s just focusing on what he can do and what he can be. … You watch his target tape, I think it’s pretty impressive. And we think he hasn’t hit his ceiling yet.”
Davis wouldn’t have been alone in his appreciation of Thornton’s physical traits. New offensive coordinator Chip Kelly said Thornton’s “unique” tools will make him incredibly difficult to defend at the NFL level.
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“There’s not a lot of humans on this planet that do that,” Kelly said. “And I think if you had to draw up an outside receiver, you would pick that type of body type, someone that’s got length, someone that’s got a huge catch radius, but also has speed. Sometimes you can get a big guy like that, but he can’t really run, so they can stay with him. So, you add that speed element to him, his ability to sink his hips, his ability to get in and out of cuts.”
Thornton’s potential was apparent coming out of high school, when he was a five-star recruit and the No. 75 player in the 2021 signing class, according to 247Sports. He began his career at Oregon before transferring to Tennessee in 2023.
As a senior with the Vols last season, Thornton showed off his big play ability with 661 yards and six touchdowns on just 26 receptions.
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