Shaq Thompson
Buffalo Bills·#45·11th yearShaq Thompson is an LB for the Buffalo Bills (updated October 30, 2026).
Model Score by season
Down 0.7 from last season.
How good he is at what he is supposed to be doing, out of 100. Not a projection of what he will do next, and not a read on his contract. Median is about 70, and a 95 is rare. How it is built →
STM Take
A veteran linebacker who broke out late with a new team.
The case for
- 11 years of NFL survival plus the late-career tier 3 (#18) Bills breakout gives him real journeyman late-career résumé.
- Washington 25th overall draft pedigree plus the change-of-scenery to a contender gives him real veteran market value.
The worry
- Single top-25 STTM finish in year 11 puts the 2025 production on a small sample with significant downside risk.
- Age 32 plus 11 years of LB wear puts the late-career structural decline question on every 2026 projection.
What to watch: Whether Thompson holds tier 4 or better across the full 2026 Bills season at age 32, the threshold for confirming the 2025 breakout was structural.
Full take and bio
First top-25 STTM finish at tier 3 (#18) in year 11 with Buffalo after 10 years in Carolina puts Thompson in the rare late-career change-of-scenery breakout class. The Washington 25th overall draft pedigree plus 11 years of NFL development gives him real veteran market value. The 2026 question is whether Thompson holds tier 3 or better across a full second Bills season at age 32 or whether the 2025 finish was a one-year context spike.
Thompson came out of Washington as the Carolina Panthers' 1st-round pick (25th overall) in 2015 and spent 10 years in Carolina before signing with the Buffalo Bills in 2025. His first STTM appearance in the top 25 comes in 2025 at tier 3 (#18) with Buffalo.
Comps
The players whose size, testing and production looked most like his at the same point in their careers. The percent is how close.
Plays like: Lemanski Hall, Malcolm Rodriguez, Keith Rivers. Built like: Ben Burr-Kirven, Ben Heeney, Dorian O'daniel.
Shaq Thompson Injury StatusNot listed
Shaq Thompson is not on the injury report as of Oct 30. Source: the official NFL injury report, refreshed daily.
Draft & College
Round 1, pick 25 to the Carolina Panthers in 2015, out of Washington (Pac-12). He went about where consensus had him.
In college, 2014, 6 games: 456 rush yds, 2 TD, 7.6 yds/carry, 4 rec. (partial record) Coming out: 4.64s 40 yd, 33.5" vertical, 117" broad, 6.99s 3-cone, 4.08s shuttle.
What this pick usually becomes. Of the 220 players taken as a late first-rounder between 2012 and 2021, 70% earned a second contract and 72% became starters. The median one started 58 career games.