“That’s what my body has to tell me, and my body is telling me I can still go,” Thomas said. “I’m just listening to my body. If my body says it’s up, then my time is up. But my body is not telling me that now.”

Thomas had just 143 total yards with the Redskins, including the playoffs, but he picked up some key first downs against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 16 to help the franchise clinch the NFC East division title.

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“I feel like I’m a good fit here,” Thomas said. “I feel like I can help out. I like this organization, I like this team [and] I like this coaching staff. They gave me a chance. They believed that I still had talent left, and I wanted to show everybody. The Washington Redskins gave me that opportunity.”

Despite eight years of experience, Thomas was a free agent at the start of the season. He finally received a shot with the San Francisco 49ers during Week 9, but Thomas stuck with the team for just a week. Washington signed Thomas right before its Week 14 matchup against the Chicago Bears, fearing it needed another running back with the possibility of Chris Thompson landing on injured reserve.

“Going team-to-team for workouts, it felt like I was at the [NFL] Combine all over again,” Thomas said. “If you know about my past, when it was my year to come into the NFL, I did all right in the Combine but didn’t get drafted. Maybe I didn’t do too well in the drills that they had laid out. I’m not a drill guy. I’m not. I play the game. I’m good at playing the game. It was towards the end of the year in December, and I told them, ‘Hey I’ve been with so many teams. They made me go through the drills. They wanted to evaluate me on that.’

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“But you’ve seen my video. You’ve seen my tape out there, my resume, that show I can play the game. But you want to go off these bags? It’s kind of odd to me.”

Thompson never went on injured reserve, but Thomas still found a role because of a hip injury sidelining rookie Matt Jones for the final three games – including a 35-18 loss to the Green Bay Packers in the playoff game on Sunday.

Thomas said he immediately respected Redskins Coach Jay Gruden during the process of signing with the team and playing under him in Washington. He said Gruden offered Thomas to just come in and have a physical to make sure he was healthy rather than have him perform another workout like other NFL teams.

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“I mean just for him to say that and say, ‘I’m going to check to see if I can do that.’ Just for him to say that shows that he’ll pull for his players, pull for his guys and do anything for his guys to get them in there,” Thomas said. “I respect that. He hung up the phone before I could say, ‘You know what? I’m just going to come in and do whatever workout you want me to do. Just because you said that, I’ll come in and do any workout you want me to do.’ It showed me that he’ll pull for his players. He has their back.”

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