Raiders TE Ian Thomas Confidence, Faith, and Growth

Mon, Aug 24, 2026

Video Transcript

How have you seen Fernando respond when things might not go his way on the field in a game situation?

With one week of preseason left, what's the biggest thing that, that you think you and your group need to kind of hone in on prior to regular season?

Oh, like I said, like, um, keep making plays and having the team trust us.

Um, there's not one thing that I can pinpoint, but, um.

The more we can do, the better, right?

Um, the more we can do to help our team, um, whether it's in the run game, the pass game, even special teams.

So, uh, yeah, it's just, um, Getting open and you know, having a, having the quarterbacks look at us first.

You've, you've gotten a good amount of work with Fernando and uh with the second team.

Just what, how have you seen him grow throughout this training camp and preseason?

Oh, like his, his confidence is through the roof, and I love it, um, and you know the guys are always right behind him pushing him to go forward, right, um, and he's the number 1 overall, so you expect a lot out of him, um, but it's, it's not easy going into a, a pro team or pro level and, you know, making a splash right away, so.

Um, the more we can do like to encourage him to do better is, you know, the better for us, right?

So, um, yeah, he's been, he's been, he's been coming along real good, and, and everyone loves it.

So I, yeah, like, like I said, he's an IU guy and I love that too.

Any rookie, especially in the preseason games, it's their first time stepping on the NFL field, playing in a regulation game.

Any little mistake could maybe deter them or get them down.

How have you seen Fernando respond when things might not go his way on the field in a game situation?

Well, what, what I love best, um, and I, I don't know if I told him this or not, but on the way to the last game, he was watching um a service on his phone, so he's very faith-based, and I'm sure everyone knows that.

So, you know, when, when things go wrong, I'm sure he, you know, falls back on his faith and, and then get right back on track and go again.

Um, this league is, everyone pushes to be perfect, um, and it's hard to be perfect, right?

So.

Um, for him to, you know, get out there and have the encouragement that he has and, you know, the, the self, the self-awareness that he has is, is really good at a young age, and, um, I'm sure everyone can see it and he's, you know, pushing himself to do better.

Obviously, you, you never want to be the person that's like, oh well, I guess I'll have it next time, you know, he want that playback right away, so yeah.