Cornerback Azareye’h Thomas, Florida State, Round 3, Pick 73

The Jets selected Florida State cornerback Azareye’h Thomas with the 73rd overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft on Friday night.

Thomas (6-2, 196) started 12 games for the Seminoles last season and totaled a career-high 52 tackles to go with 5 pass defenses and 1 interception. The Niceville, FL native played in 37 games during his three seasons in Tallahassee and totaled 95 tackles, 8 tackles for loss, 1 forced fumble, 17 PDs and 2 INT.

“I’m physical,” he told reporters Friday night after he was selected. “I’ll smother you, I’m going to lock down my side of the field and I’m a great teammate.”

A one-year starter at FSU, Thomas allowed 17 catches on 33 targets in the 2024 season. The Athletic’s Dane Brugler said Thomas’ play style is similar to Carlton Davis, who played for Jets head coach Aaron Glenn on the Lions last season when Glenn was Detroit’s defensive coordinator. Thomas, like Davis, did not run a fast 40-yard dash (4.58 seconds), which he may have been dinged for in the pre-draft process by evaluators, but that did not matter for Thomas’ new head coach.

“Awhile ago, I really started to look at play speed a little bit more than just timed speed,” Glenn told reporters Friday night. “I had a guy [in Detroit] last year in [DB] Brian Branch. He ran a 4.58 also, but his play speed was like 4.3. I think everyone knows the way he plays. Just looking at the player and seeing how he plays on the field, that’s more enticing to me than watching a guy run in underwear at the Combine. Football is football and he plays the brand that we want to play. He’s a big, physical man and I’m looking forward to him getting up here and being able to take what he did at Florida State and bring that to us because that’s how we play.”