Super Bowl winning NFL head coach ‘fell in love’ with former Tennessee Vols standout during 2025 NFL Draft process
Former Tennessee Vols wide receiver Dont’e Thornton is set to start in Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season for the Las Vegas Raiders. Thornton, a fourth round selection by the Raiders in the 2025 NFL Draft, won a starting job for Las Vegas during training camp. The former Vol actually beat out former TCU […]
Former Tennessee Vols wide receiver Dont’e Thornton is set to start in Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season for the Las Vegas Raiders.
Thornton, a fourth round selection by the Raiders in the 2025 NFL Draft, won a starting job for Las Vegas during training camp.
The former Vol actually beat out former TCU wide receiver Jack Bech, who was selected two rounds earlier, for a starting job.
The biggest reason that Thornton landed in Las Vegas is because Raiders head coach Pete Carroll “fell in love” with the former Tennessee standout during the draft process.
“I think he was a good product coming in, and obviously our personnel department and really, Pete,” said Raiders offensive coordinator Chip Kelly this week about the decision to draft Thornton. “Pete was the guy that kind of fell in love with him watching the tape — and we felt the same thing. As I said earlier, there aren’t many people that tall and long that are that fast, but I’ve seen him really embrace every day and just, I don’t think he was thinking about starting or anything.”
“I think everybody here expects him to play really well on Sunday because we always believe that you’re going to play on Sunday the way you train,” added Kelly of Thornton. “And I think he trains at a really high level right now.”
Thornton and the Raiders open the 2025 regular season against the New England Patriots.
Pete Carroll really liked Dont’e Thornton’s film at Oregon
Before Thornton arrived at Tennessee, he spent a couple of seasons at Oregon.
Thornton said earlier this offseason that Carroll liked a lot of what he saw from the 6-foot-5 wide receiver’s Oregon film.
“One thing on draft day, when I talked to Coach Pete Carroll, he said it himself, if you look at the Oregon film, there’s a lot of stuff you can see that people didn’t see with these last two years with me playing at Tennessee,” said Thornton during an appearance on OLV Raiders Network. “If you turn on my two years of Oregon film, you’ll see me running true routes.
“But I just take it as a challenge. I’m not going to say I’m the best route runner in the world — there’s definitely stuff I’ve got to work on.”
Thornton said throughout the draft process that teams had questions about his route-running abilities because of the offense he played in at Tennessee.
“That was mostly every team’s main talking point was asking with the offense that we run here at Tennessee if I’m able to run those pro-style routes….I had to be very intentional, playing two seasons here at Tennessee, we don’t have the same wide route tree that most pro-style offenses have,” said Thornton at Tennessee’s Pro Day before the draft.
It sounds like Thornton was able to answer the questions about his route running skills just fine during training camp. Earning a starting job as a rookie fourth round draft pick is certainly a big accomplishment for the former Vol.
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