If offensive lineman Thomas Perry hears his name called during the 2025 NFL draft, he will make history. While kicker Stephen Hauschka enjoyed a 13-year NFL career, he was undrafted. No football player from Middlebury College has ever been selected in the draft.
Perry has already made history as the first Division III player invited to the East-West Shrine Bowl. That could create added pressure to perform for Perry. Not only does he want to prove that he deserves to be here, but he also wants to pave the way for other players. Somehow, that responsibility doesn’t seem to weigh on him. Spend five minutes with Thomas Perry, and it’s clear that he is intelligent, engaging, polite, and humble, not to mention incredibly positive. He is excited about his opportunities but doesn’t seem to be bothered by much.
“I’m so happy to be here and playing football in January, and this is an opportunity DIII guys don’t usually get,” he tells me in an interview. “So, I want to show that to other D-III guys, like, hey, you work hard, you could get to the East-West Shrine Bowl game. So I do feel like other D-III guys probably would look to me and want me to do well in that sense.”
Perry has always loved football, and it’s in his blood. His father, uncle, and three cousins all played football at Brown University. He laughed when asked if he is related to EJ Perry, a prior Shrine Bowl participant whose uncle coaches at Brown.
“Different Perry’s”.
Another cousin played for the Seattle Seahawks. As a precaution, his father made him wait until seventh grade to start playing because “kids are like bobbleheads when they’re young”. Instead, Perry wrestled in middle school, a sport he continued even as he picked up football. Wrestling through high school only enhanced his strength and agility on the football field.
Perry loved football from the start. That’s never changed. But the road to the NCAA was challenging, even though he was 6’1 and 260 pounds at the time, coming from a small public high school in Connecticut with 160 people per class. With the COVID pandemic, no camps or recruiters were coming by. Perry’s father steered him towards the nearby NESCAC schools. A personal connection between his father and the head coach at Middlebury led to an introduction. An offer followed, and Perry jumped at the chance.
It turned out to be a perfect fit. Majoring in both molecular biology and chemistry with a math minor, Perry has established himself as a star student. He still makes time to enjoy the beautiful outdoors of the Vermont campus. His first love, though, remains football. He lights up talking about the program, his teammates, and his coaches, especially offensive line coach Dave Caputi.
The respect is clearly mutual. The entire Middlebury Football coaching staff traveled to Frisco, Texas, to support Perry during his week at the Shrine Bowl. Coach Caputi had endless praise for Perry. Speaking with me on the sidelines, he described Perry’s work ethic and noted that he never missed a practice or a game.
More than that, Perry changed the culture in his position group. As Coach Caputi tells it, Thomas would fist pump his coach and thank him as he came off the practice field every day. It quickly became a habit for all of the offensive linemen, and four years later, it is now a permanent part of their daily routine. Perry sets a standard of professionalism by example and brings full energy to every meeting, practice, and game.
It was a chance email that paved the way to working with Duke Manyweather, founder of OL Masterminds and a well-respected offensive linemen trainer. Perry had been using the OL Masterminds app for his training. Perry had arranged a summer internship at Yale University last summer. His father reached out to Manyweather to see if he would train his son for a weekend or so. After reviewing some of the college and lifting tape Perry’s father sent, Manyweather agreed to coach Perry for a month, which turned into the entire summer and continues to this day. I connected with Manyweather during the Shrine Bowl. The OL guru has high praise for Perry:
“Thomas is a special human and player,” Manyweather said. “Doesn’t matter what level he played at. He is one of the most physically impressive athletes I’ve ever worked with. He’s just a ball of clay right now that some team will get and be very pleased with. I’m an early riser, I get to the facility at 4 AM every morning, and there are two players that are usually right behind me and sometimes there waiting for me. Thomas Perry and Will Campbell. The mindset is the culture here at OL Masterminds, and those two guys have fully embraced and embodied what we are all about.”
Perry credits his time with Manyweather for improving technique, handwork, and footwork. Even the lifting bars are designed to keep the lineman’s elbows in and maintain proper form. Strength was never his issue; there’s a reason he is known as “Thomas the Tank.” Perry can bench press 500 pounds and has done 34 reps of 250 pounds. His goal is 40 reps; neither he nor Manyweather thinks that is unrealistic. At his Pro Day, Perry officially put up 31 reps, and our scouting report consistently noted his play strength.
Perry played left guard at Middlebury but did have some position flexibility, filling in at other places along the offensive line when teammates were injured. At the Shrine Bowl practices, he lined up at both guard positions and center. Manyweather projects Perry as a center in the NFL due to his size and his IQ, and has been training him for that transition at the next level. Perry also hopes his ability to play at all interior line positions will make him more attractive to NFL teams.
Perry’s hard work has paid off. He was still adjusting to the speed and size of his new opponents, but felt he made progress every day.
“I mean, everything just happens like a little bit faster and the guys are a little bit bigger than I’m used to, but yesterday and today I think I improved a lot,” he said back during the Shrine Bowl. “I’m excited to go there tomorrow and improve again. I am just continuing to work on my technique. When I get engaged, when I’m back in the second level, I don’t like widen up to power them, just run right through them.”
Weighing 311 pounds and measuring 6023 with sub-32-inch arms, Perry doesn’t have the size advantage, but he makes up for that with strength and agility. He had a solid week of practice and held his own against defensive linemen from bigger and more powerful football programs.
Perry impressed during the Shrine Bowl game as well. Here is a pass-blocking rep at left guard:
Playing center, Perry cleared the path for RB Jacory Croskey-Merritt’s second rushing touchdown:
Perry has gotten guidance from former Middlebury graduates working as NFL scouts. Stephen Hauschka visited Middlebury last fall when he was inducted into the school’s hall of fame and spent time talking with Perry about the path to the NFL. Many NFL teams sent scouts to the Middlebury campus during the season. Even former Senior Bowl Director Jim Nagy commented on Perry last August:
While Steelers scouts didn’t make it to Vermont, they did meet with Perry during the Shrine Bowl week. He continues to build on the attention he attracted that week and could be a day-three draft pick. Perry’s father has been a Steelers fan since childhood in the 1970s. Perry has never been a fan of any particular team but would be happy to land in Pittsburgh.
Mostly, he’s just looking for a chance to keep playing the game he loves.
He may just make history once again on the way there.
