Andrew Thomas sat on the white leather couch in his family’s living room when the NFL Draft began on Thursday night, his phone plugged into the charger. He waited for a buzz.

The buzz.

His agent, John Thornton, six feet away for social distancing and wearing a black face mask, was frantic. He contacted people he knew around the league, trying to figure out where Thomas — one of the top offensive linemen in the draft — was going to end up. Thornton had been through this before as a player — when the Tennessee Titans picked him in the second round in 1999.

Around 8:45 p.m., Thomas’ phone vibrated. The call was coming from a New York area code.

“I was excited to get the call,” Thomas said, “it came, like, three minutes before the pick.”

Introducing Giants Extra: Sign up for a free trial now. Get exclusive news, behind-the-scenes observations and the ability to text directly with reporters

Thornton knew what that could mean — the Giants, who were selecting fourth overall — were going to pick him after months of sustained interest — but he was still skeptical. There’s good reason — he had just watched a draft show detail a prank played on Rutgers alum Mohamed Sanu, when a caller pretended to be an NFL team official on draft night in 2012.

Even when Thomas was on the call with the Giants, Thornton wasn’t convinced what he saw happening was actually happening.

“There’s obviously a delay on TV,” Thornton told NJ Advance Media. “I was sitting behind Andrew and a couple of people in the media texted me asking if he got the call, and I said, ‘No.’ Then, Andrew picked his phone up, I saw the New York number, and I still wasn’t sure ...

"After we got off the call, even then I still wasn’t sure. I was just hoping it was actually the Giants on the other end of the line.”

Well, it was true: The Giants had selected Thomas, hoping he will keep second-year quarterback Daniel Jones upright for the next decade while opening running lanes for franchise running back Saquon Barkley.

Thomas spoke with members of the Giants’ front office on the phone, and eventually chatted with head coach Joe Judge who, Thornton said, was “really serious” and told him to come to work and put the “B.S. aside." According to ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio, Judge told Thomas that when Thomas spoke to the media, Judge didn’t want to hear any talk of Super Bowls.

“It was a no-nonsense call,” Thornton said.

At least eight teams had Thomas ranked as their top offensive tackle, NJ Advance Media learned in recent weeks, so the Giants believed they had to grab him with the fourth pick.

The Giants spent much of last week frantically trying to trade down, according to multiple executives and a current general manager, but a market for the No. 4 pick never developed. If the Giants believed Thomas would still be there after moving down, it might have been a mistake: The Cleveland Browns, Indianapolis Colts, Miami Dolphins, Los Angeles Chargers, Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers had Thomas as the top tackle on their draft boards, according to several NFL scouts and executives.

So, how did the Giants get to the fourth pick of the draft convinced that Thomas was the guy to help GM Dave Gettleman finally fix a chronically bad offensive line? NJ Advance Media spoke to several people close to Thomas, the Giants, and teams across the league to get an understanding of what drew the Giants to the Georgia product, a courtship that began at the NFL Combine in February.

‘A can’t-miss left tackle’

Long before those anxious moments in his family’s living room, Thomas packed his car and headed to Pensacola, Fla.

That’s where he met former Jets, Cowboys, and Bengals offensive line coach Paul Alexander, who trained him for more than a year. With Alexander, Thomas went from a strong tackle, in the nation’s top college conference, to the lineman the Giants couldn’t wait to draft.

“I knew immediately that the guy understood football,” Alexander told NJ Advance Media. "He was a tremendous body, great athlete, and a very productive player, but he’s a guy who could take it to the next-level, because he could make adjustments. He understood the adjustments and made them easily, which is what great pros do.”

One of Alexander’s goals was to improve Thomas’ use of hands in pass protection — not just to prepare him for his final season in the SEC, but also for the NFL pass rushers he would face as a rookie. When Alexander settled in to watch the Bulldogs last season, he knew his hard work — and Thomas’ — had paid off.

“What I saw was a more mature development in the use of his technique,” Alexander said. "Particularly with his hands.”

The improved technique helped him dominate Notre Dame’s Julian Okwara, LSU’s K’Lavon Chaisson, and others this past season. It caught Judge’s eye during his hours of watching film of this year’s top offensive tackle prospects.

“He’s long, he’s a good athlete, he has good short-area redirect,” Judge said. “One thing that sticks out about him is when you watch the top pass rushers, with the exception of maybe a couple in this draft, they have to go against him. He does a heck of a job on them, you see him compete, you see him play big in big games, and that’s important.”

Alexander says he has no doubt Thomas can help bolster one of the league’s woebegone lines.

“He has ideal athletic traits,” Alexander said. "He has the ideal body, he’s the most productive blocker in the country against the most dominant rushers in the country, and he understands how to adjust techniques. So, he’s a can’t-miss left tackle.”

NFL Combine

How a prospect performs on the field during the NFL Combine can help their league-wide standing, but it’s behind closed doors — in meetings with general managers, coaches, and scouts — where teams truly fall in love. And this is when the Giants developed a crush. Thomas’ combine schedule was loaded with 15 formal interviews.

“He was definitely a really bright kid,” a current NFL scout told NJ Advance Media. “His recall is what I remember most. If we put something up on the board, he remembered it almost instantly. That’s something you can’t teach, and really want the chance to work with."

As Thomas underwent interrogations, Thornton surveyed the league to get a feel for how things were going over steak dinners and cocktails in Indianapolis steakhouses. There were rave reviews, and people who used to work with Gettleman told Thornton that they “couldn’t see how Gettleman doesn’t have Andrew’s name” at the top of their board.

“Everybody was telling me, ‘Andrew was our best interview,’" Thornton said. "I heard the same thing from the Giants. I knew some scouts and personnel guys, who scouted when I was playing. When we sat down for dinner at the Combine, they told me: ‘Man, he was A-plus.’ He’s smart.”

Thornton’s intel proved prescient.

“We spent a lot of time with him off the field,” Gettleman said. “Numerous conversations. We spoke to him in Indianapolis and we just feel he is ready to make this jump.”

The Giants’ time with Thomas, who plays drums and piano, was the opening note of a symphony that continued to build throughout the spring until he was moved atop the board approximately three weeks prior to the draft.

Zoom call

The two days before the draft, as teams finalized their boards, were a dizzying experience for Thomas. He spent hours in front of his laptop, as FaceTime replaced the face time with scouts and coaches. Pro days and visits to team facilities were scrapped by shutdowns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.

That’s when the Giants called. Again. And again.

Thomas had a Zoom call with Gettleman, and conversations with offensive coordinator Jason Garrett and offensive line coach Marc Colombo. Judge checked in on several of the calls.

“I hoped they’re not just gassing up Andrew with these last-minute calls,” Thornton said.

Turns out, they weren’t.

“He has the right demeanor, the right makeup," Judge said. “Not being able to be on campuses, not having the luxury of pro days or 30 visits coming to our facility, you had to rely on your contacts, and this is someone that a lot of people I am close with had worked directly with (knew about). There was a lot of good knowledge we could sign off on and know what we were bringing in to add to our team. This is definitely a guy we are excited about getting in and getting a chance to work with.”

Judge says the plan is for Thomas to compete at left and right tackle, once the Giants can get on the field. With Jones and Barkley two of the most important pieces of the Giants’ future, Thomas is vitally important.

Before the draft, Thomas received a package with 32 hats for all the teams in the league.

“Just in case you got picked,” Thomas said, “you had the hat ready.”

Of course, he only needed one, and he put that hat on seconds after hanging up his phone.

Get Giants text messages from reporters: Cut through the clutter of social media and text directly with the Giants beat writers. Plus, exclusive news and analysis every day. Sign up now for a free trial.

Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust.

Follow Matt Lombardo on Twitter at @MattLombardoNFL.